Tait's flyping conjecture for 4-regular graphs (Q2573649)

In the end of the 19th century Tait stated the conjecture that two reduced, alternating, prime link diagrams can be transformed into each other by a finite sequence of flypes. In the present paper a version of this flyping conjecture is proved for reduced, alternating, prime diagrams of 4-regular graphs in \(S^3\). The result depends on a suitable definition of primality. The proof is based on the fact that two reduced, alternating, prime graph diagrams are ambient isotopic if and only if they are rigid vertex isotopic. The author gives an example showing that this fact does not hold in general without assuming primality.