Complementary regions of knot and link diagrams

DOI10.1007/S00026-011-0109-2MaRDI QIDQ659650zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Reiko Shinjo, Kokoro Tanaka, Colin Adams

Publication date 24 January 2012

Published in Annals of Combinatorics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0812.2558

zbMATH Keywords

4-valent graphcomplementary regionknot diagram

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Planar graphs; geometric and topological aspects of graph theory (05C10) Relations of low-dimensional topology with graph theory (57M15)

Abstract: An increasing sequence of integers is said to be universal for knots and links if every knot and link has a projection to the sphere such that the number of edges of each complementary face of the projection comes from the given sequence. This paper is an investigation into which sequences, either finite or infinite, are universal. We also consider how to minimize the number of odd-sided faces for projections of knots and links with n components.

Review text

The faces of a connected reduced link diagram divide the sphere into a collection of \(n\)-gons. This paper investigates which collections of \(n\)-gons can arise from link diagrams. In more detail, a strictly increasing sequence of integers \((a_1, a_2, a_3, \dots )\), with \(a_1 \geq 2\), is said to be universal for knots and links if every knot and link has a reduced diagram in which each face is an \(a_n\)-gon for some \(a_n\) in the sequence. (Note that not every \(a_n\) in the sequence needs to be realized as an \(a_n\)-gon in the diagram.) It is shown that the following infinite sequences are universal for knots and links: \((3,5,7,9, \dots)\), \((2,n,n+1,n+2,\dots)\) for each \(n \geq 3\), and \((3,n,n+1,n+2,\dots)\) for each \(n \geq 4\). In addition, it is shown that the finite sequences \((2,4,5)\), and \((3,4,n)\) for \(n\geq 5\) are universal for knots and links. Further results on the collection of \(n\)-gons that can arise from knot and link diagrams are given. For example, it is shown that every knot has a diagram with exactly two \(3\)-gons with all other faces even; and it is shown that only sequences with a non-trivial common divisor \(k\) arise from links with at least \(k\) components. The paper concludes with a short list of questions.

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Cites work

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Cited in

(25)

• The reductivity of spherical curves. II: 4-gons
• Semimeander crossing number of knots and related invariants
• Meander diagrams of knots and spatial graphs: proofs of generalized Jablan-Radović conjectures
• Delta diagrams
• From doodles to diagrams to knots
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1802839 (Why is no real title available?)
• A note on the link sequences
• Bisected vertex leveling of plane graphs: braid index, arc index and delta diagrams
• Circle arrangements of link projections
• Loop numbers of knots
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2086736 (Why is no real title available?)
• Axis systems of link projections
• Lower bounds for the warping degree of a knot projection
• Circle immersions that can be divided into two arc embeddings
• Universal knot diagrams
• (1, 2) AND WEAK (1, 3) HOMOTOPIES ON KNOT PROJECTIONS
• Families of not perfectly straight knots
• Random colorings in manifolds
• Random meander model for links
• Isolated regions of a link projection
• Any link has a diagram with only triangles and quadrilaterals
• Turk's head knots and links: a survey
• Segment number of knots
• The reductivity of spherical curves
• Universal sequences of spatial graphs

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