Linkless embeddings of graphs in 3-space

Planar graphs; geometric and topological aspects of graph theory (05C10) Structural characterization of families of graphs (05C75) Fundamental group, presentations, free differential calculus (57M05) Relations of low-dimensional topology with graph theory (57M15)

Abstract: We announce results about flat (linkless) embeddings of graphs in 3-space. A piecewise-linear embedding of a graph in 3-space is called {it flat} if every circuit of the graph bounds a disk disjoint from the rest of the graph. We have shown: (i) An embedding is flat if and only if the fundamental group of the complement in 3-space of the embedding of every subgraph is free. (ii) If two flat embeddings of the same graph are not ambient isotopic, then they differ on a subdivision of

K_{5}

or

K_{3, 3}

. (iii) Any flat embedding of a graph can be transformed to any other flat embedding of the same graph by ``3-switches, an analog of 2-switches from the theory of planar embeddings. In particular, any two flat embeddings of a 4-connected graph are either ambient isotopic, or one is ambient isotopic to a mirror image of the other. (iv) A graph has a flat embedding if and only if it has no minor isomorphic to one of seven specified graphs. These are the graphs that can be obtained from $K_{6}$ by means of $Y D e l t a$ - and $D e l t a Y$ -exchanges.

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