Everywhere equivalent and everywhere different knot diagrams (Q387413)

Given a knot diagram, one may ask what happens if a crossing is changed? In this article, the author considers two specific instances of a crossing change, everywhere different diagrams and everywhere equivalent diagrams. As the names imply, a knot diagram is everywhere different if any single crossing change produces a different knot type and a knot diagram is everywhere equivalent if every single crossing change produces the same knot type. The article begins with a detailed review of all the tools and concepts that are needed. Next, infinite families of everywhere different knot diagrams are constructed and confirmed using the determinant, the Menasco-Thistlethwaite theorem which proves the Tait flyping conjecture, and the Jones polynomial via computer computations relying on the Temperley-Lieb category. Infinite families that are both alternating and non-alternating are constructed. The later part of the article has a nice combination of graph theory and knot theory. Through this approach, an infinite family of everywhere equivalent prime knot diagrams is constructed. In addition, the author uses elementary constructions from planar edge-transitive graphs to classify all everywhere equivalent prime knot diagrams.