On intrinsically knotted or completely 3-linked graphs (Q657349)

A spatial graph is a graph embedded into \(\mathbb{S}^3\). A graph \(G\) is said to be intrinsically knotted if every spatial embedding of \(G\) contains a cycle that is knotted. It is completely 3-linked if every spatial embedding contains a 3-component link \(L\) such that no pair of components of \(L\) form a split link. A \(\Delta Y\)-exchange is a move on a graph that deletes the edges of a cycle of length three, and replaces them with an edge from each of the three vertices to a new vertex. A \(Y\Delta\)-exchange is the reverse of this. A minor of a graph is any graph obtained from it by deleting some edges and contracting some edges to a point. A graph \(G\) is said to be minor-minimal with respect to a property \(P\) if \(G\) has property \(P\) but no minor of it does. The paper under review studies the Heawood family of graphs, the 20 graphs that can be obtained from \(K_7\) (the complete graph on 7 vertices) by a finite sequence of \(\Delta Y\)-exchanges and \(Y\Delta\)-exchanges. \textit{T. Kohara} and \textit{S. Suzuki} [in: Knots 90, Proc. Int. Conf. Knot Theory Rel. Topics, Osaka/Japan 1990, 435--445 (1992; Zbl 0771.57002)] have shown that 14 of these graphs are intrinsically knotted. On the other hand, \textit{E. Flapan} and \textit{R. Naimi} [Osaka J. Math. 45, 107--111 (2008; Zbl 1145.05019)] have shown that one is not. This paper shows that the remaining 5 graphs are also not intrinsically knotted. In addition, it shows that each graph in the Heawood family is minor-minimal with respect to the property of being intrinsically knotted or completely 3-linked. Some of the proofs are direct, while others make simple use of the Arf invariant of a knot, modulo 2.