The Y-triangle move does not preserve intrinsic knottedness

MaRDI QIDQ2482300zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Erica Flapan, Ramin Naimi

Publication date 16 April 2008

Published in Osaka Journal of Mathematics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1205.4798, https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.ojm/1205503559

zbMATH Keywords

\(\Delta-Y\) move\(Y-\Delta\) movecomplete graphembeddingintrinsic knottednessintrinsic linkednessKnotlink

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Planar graphs; geometric and topological aspects of graph theory (05C10)

Abstract: We answer the question "Does the Y-triangle move preserve intrinsic knottedness?" in the negative by giving an example of a graph that is obtained from the intrinsically knotted graph K_7 by triangle-Y and Y-triangle moves but is not intrinsically knotted.

Review text

A graph \(G\) is said to be intrinsically knotted or IK (resp. intrinsically linked or IL) if every embedding of \(G\) in \(\mathbb R^3\) contains a nontrivial knot (resp. a nontrivial link). {it H. Sachs} [Finite and infinite sets, 6th Hung. Combin. Colloq., Eger/Hung. 1981, Vol. II, Colloq. Math. Soc. János Bolyai 37, 649--662 (1984; Zbl 0568.05026)] and \textit{J. H. Conway} and \textit{C.McA. Gordon} [J. Graph Theory 7, 445--453 (1983; Zbl 0524.05028)] show that the complete graph \(K_6\) is IL; in the same paper, Conway-Gordon also show that the complete graph \(K_7\) is IK. On the other hand, a \textit{\(\Delta - Y\) move} on an abstract graph \(G\) consists of removing the edges of a 3-cycle \(abc\) in \(G\), and then adding a new vertex \(v\) and connecting it to each of the vertices \(a,b\) and \(c\). The reverse move is called a \textit{\(Y - \Delta \) move}. Despite \(\Delta -Y\) move is known to preserve intrinsic knottedness and intrinsic linkedness [see \textit{Motwani, Raghunathan} and \textit{Saran}, ``Constructive results from graph minors, 29th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, IEEE, 398--409 (1988)], and \(Y - \Delta\) move is known to preserve intrinsic linkedness [see J. Comb. Theory, Ser. B 64, No. 2, 185--227 (1995; Zbl 0832.05032)], it was an open question whether a \(Y - \Delta\) move on a IK graph always produces an IK graph, or not. The present paper proves the answer to be negative, by giving a knotless embedding of a graph \(G_7\) that is obtained from \(K_7\) by \(\Delta - Y\) and \(Y - \Delta\) moves.

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Cites work

• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3906521 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1025912 (Why is no real title available?)
• Knots and links in spatial graphs
• Sachs' linkless embedding conjecture

Cited in

(8)

• Many, many more intrinsically knotted graphs
• Family sizes for complete multipartite graphs
• Intrinsic 3-linkedness is not preserved by \(\mathrm{Y}\nabla\) moves
• Triangle-Y exchanges on intrinsic knotting of almost complete and complete partite graphs
• Recent developments in spatial graph theory
• Bipartite intrinsically knotted graphs with 22 edges
• Maximal knotless graphs
• Constructions stemming from nonseparating planar graphs and their Colin de Verdière invariant

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