Knot projections with reductivity two (Q492266)

The authors establish a necessary and sufficient condition for Shimizu reductivity two, with circles intersecting diagrams at three or two crossings in certain ways. As a consequence, the chord diagram of any such projection must contain a certain sub-diagram. This extends their earlier result for Shimizu reductivity one [``Triple chords and strong (1,2) homotopy'', J. Math. Soc. Japan, to appear]. They also introduce three new types of reductivity, relate them to each other, and fully determine knot projections up to reductivity two for all of them.