Any link has a diagram with only triangles and quadrilaterals (Q7011680)

Given a link diagram \(D\) on the plane, denote the number of \(n\)-gons of \(\mathbb{R}^2\setminus D\) by \(p_n\), then Euler's formula tells us that \N\[\N2p_2+p_3=8+p_5+2p_6+3p_7+\cdots. \N\] \NThe main result of this paper is for any sequence \(\{q_2=0, q_3, q_5, q_6, q_7, \dots\}\) of nonnegative integers satisfying the equation above, any link admits a link diagram such that \(p_i=q_i\) \((i\geq2, i\neq4)\). As a corollary, every link admits a link diagram with only triangles and quadrilaterals. It provides the first example of a sequence of two integers \((3, 4)\) which are universal for link diagrams.