Abstract: We show that the following unlinking strategy does not always yield an optimal sequence of crossing changes: first split the link with the minimal number of crossing changes, and then unknot the resulting components.
In this short paper, the authors give a negative answer to the following question: ``Is the following always the most efficient strategy for unlinking? First split the link with the minimal number of crossing changes, and then unknot the resulting knots. They construct a counterexample with a 3-component link with unlinking number 2 and splitting number 1, but after splitting by one crossing change, one needs at least two crossing changes to unknot the components.
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Cites work
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