arXiv research

Survey of intrinsically linked or knotted graphs.

New research finds six bipartite intrinsically knotted graphs with 23 edges.

We classify graphs that are 0, 1, or 2 edges short of being complete partite graphs with respect to intrinsic linking and intrinsic knotting. In addition, we classify intrinsic knotting of graphs on 8 vertices. For graphs in these families, we verify a conjecture presented in Adams' "The Knot Book": If a vertex is remo…

We introduce new sufficient conditions for intrinsic knotting and linking. A graph on n vertices with at least 4n-9 edges is intrinsically linked. A graph on n vertices with at least 5n-14 edges is intrinsically knotted. We also classify graphs that are 0, 1, or 2 edges short of being complete partite graphs with respe…

New graph shows edge deletion/contraction doesn't always result in intrinsically linked graphs.

Johnson, Kidwell, and Michael showed that intrinsically knotted graphs have at least 21 edges. Also it is known that K7 and the thirteen graphs obtained from K7 by rY moves are intrinsically knotted graphs with 21 edges. We prove that these 14 graphs are the only intrinsically knotted graphs with 21 edges.

A graph is intrinsically knotted if every embedding contains a knotted cycle. It is known that intrinsically knotted graphs have at least 21 edges and that the KS graphs, $K_7$ and the 13 graphs obtained from $K_7$ by $\nabla Y$ moves, are the only minor minimal intrinsically knotted graphs with 21 edges. This set incl…

Graphs and their complements are intrinsically knotted.

A graph is called intrinsically knotted if every embedding of the graph contains a knotted cycle. Johnson, Kidwell and Michael showed that intrinsically knotted graphs have at least 21 edges. Recently Lee, Kim, Lee and Oh, and, independently, Barsotti and Mattman, showed that $K_7$ and the 13 graphs obtained from $K_7$…

We show that deleting an edge of a 3-cycle in an intrinsically knotted graph gives an intrinsically linked graph.

A graph is called intrinsically knotted if every embedding of the graph contains a knotted cycle. Johnson, Kidwell and Michael, and, independently, Mattman showed that intrinsically knotted graphs have at least 21 edges. Recently Lee, Kim, Lee and Oh, and, independently, Barsotti and Mattman, showed that $K_7$ and the …

We list more than 200 new examples of minor minimal intrinsically knotted graphs and describe many more that are intrinsically knotted and likely minor minimal.

We prove that a graph is intrinsically linked in an arbitrary 3-manifold M if and only if it is intrinsically linked in S^3. Also, assuming the Poincare Conjecture, we prove that a graph is intrinsically knotted in M if and only if it is intrinsically knotted in S^3.

We introduce a notion of intrinsic linking and knotting for virtual spatial graphs. Our theory gives two filtrations of the set of all graphs, allowing us to measure, in a sense, how intrinsically linked or knotted a graph is; we show that these filtrations are descending and non-terminating. We also provide several ex…

We say that a graph is intrinsically knotted or completely 3-linked if every embedding of the graph into the 3-sphere contains a nontrivial knot or a 3-component link any of whose 2-component sublink is nonsplittable. We show that a graph obtained from the complete graph on seven vertices by a finite sequence of $\tria…

A directed graph $G$ is $\textit{intrinsically linked}$ if every embedding of that graph contains a non-split link $L$, where each component of $L$ is a consistently oriented cycle in $G$. A $\textit{tournament}$ is a directed graph where each pair of vertices is connected by exactly one directed edge. We consider intr…

We present evidence in support of a conjecture that a bipartite graph with at least five vertices in each part and |E(G)| \geq 4 |V(G)| - 17 is intrinsically knotted. We prove the conjecture for graphs that have exactly five or exactly six vertices in one part. We also show that there is a constant C_n such that a bipa…

We present four models for a random graph and show that, in each case, the probability that a graph is intrinsically knotted goes to one as the number of vertices increases. We also argue that, for $k \geq 18$, most graphs of order $k$ are intrinsically knotted and, for $k \geq 2n+9$, most of order $k$ are not $n$-apex…

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.

We consider intrinsic linking and knotting in the context of directed graphs. We construct an example of a directed graph that contains a consistently oriented knotted cycle in every embedding. We also construct examples of intrinsically 3-linked and 4-linked directed graphs. We introduce two operations, consistent edg…

We describe an algorithm that recognizes some (perhaps all) intrinsically knotted (IK) graphs, and can help find knotless embeddings for graphs that are not IK. The algorithm, implemented as a Mathematica program, has already been used by Goldberg, Mattman, and Naimi [6] to greatly expand the list of known minor minima…

We show that the 14 graphs obtained by $\nabla\mathrm{Y}$ moves on K_7 constitute a complete list of the minor minimal intrinsically knotted graphs on 21 edges. We also present evidence in support of a conjecture that the 20 graph Heawood family, obtained by a combination of $\nabla\mathrm{Y}$ and $\mathrm{Y}\nabla$ mo…

3028 obstructions found for embedding without knots.

New constructions from non-separating planar graphs improve understanding of graph linkability and knotability.

This paper focuses on the graphs in the Petersen family, the set of minor minimal intrinsically linked graphs. We prove there is a relationship between algebraic linking of an embedding and knotting in an embedding. We also present a more explicit relationship for the graph $K_{3,3,1}$ between knotting and linking, whi…

We construct a graph G such that any embedding of G into R^{3} contains a nonsplit link of two components, where at least one of the components is a nontrivial knot. Further, for any m < n we produce a graph H so that every embedding of H contains a nonsplit n component link, where at least m of the components are nont…

This paper identifies all topological symmetry groups for Heawood family graphs.

This article presents a survey of some recent results in the theory of spatial graphs. In particular, we highlight results related to intrinsic knotting and linking and results about symmetries of spatial graphs. In both cases we consider spatial graphs in $S^3$ as well as in other $3$-manifolds.

In contrast with knots, whose properties depend only on their extrinsic topology in $S^3$, there is a rich interplay between the intrinsic structure of a graph and the extrinsic topology of all embeddings of the graph in $S^3$ . For example, it was shown in [2] that every embedding of the complete graph $K_7$ in $S^3$ …

In 1983 Conway and Gordon proved that any embedding of the complete graph $K_7$ into $\mathbb{R}^3$ contains at least one nontrivial knot as its Hamiltonian cycle. After their work knots (also links) are considered as intrinsic properties of abstract graphs, and numerous subsequent works have been continued until recen…

Fleming and Foisy recently proved the existence of a digraph whose every embedding contains a $4$-component link, and left open the possibility that a directed graph with an intrinsic $n$-component link might exist. We show that, indeed, this is the case. In fact, much as Flapan, Mellor, and Naimi show for graphs, knot…

We show that for every m in N, there exists an n in N such that every embedding of the complete graph K_n in R^3 contains a link of two components whose linking number is at least m. Furthermore, there exists an r in N such that every embedding of K_r in R^3 contains a knot Q with |a_2(Q)| > m-1, where a_2(Q) denotes t…

In 1983, Conway and Gordon proved that for every spatial complete graph on six vertices, the sum of the linking numbers over all of the constituent two-component links is odd, and that for every spatial complete graph on seven vertices, the sum of the Arf invariants over all of the Hamiltonian knots is odd. In 2009, th…

We show that the 20 graph Heawood family, obtained by a combination of triangle-Y and Y-triangle moves on $K_7$, is precisely the set of graphs of at most 21 edges that are minor minimal for the property not $2$--apex. As a corollary, this gives a new proof that the 14 graphs obtained by triangle-Y moves on $K_7$ are t…

A graph is 2-apex if it is planar after the deletion of at most two vertices. Such graphs are not intrinsically knotted, IK. We investigate the converse, does not IK imply 2-apex? We determine the simplest possible counterexample, a graph on nine vertices and 21 edges that is neither IK nor 2-apex. In the process, we s…

The complement of a non-separating planar graph contains a K_n minor.

Two new minor minimal intrinsically chiral graphs identified.

Study Alexander polynomials of ribbon and virtual knots using ribbon's intrinsic singularity.

We show that, given any $n$ and $α$, every embedding of any sufficiently large complete graph in $\mathbb{R}^3$ contains an oriented link with components $Q_1$, ..., $Q_n$ such that for every $i\not =j$, $|\lk(Q_i,Q_j)|\geqα$ and $|a_2(Q_i)|\geqα$, where $a_{2}(Q_i)$ denotes the second coefficient of the Conway polynom…

We say that a graph is intrinsically non-trivial if every spatial embedding of the graph contains a non-trivial spatial subgraph. We prove that an intrinsically non-trivial graph is intrinsically linked, namely every spatial embedding of the graph contains a non-splittable 2-component link. We also show that there exis…

We examine graphs that contain a non-trivial link in every embedding into real projective space, using a weaker notion of unlink than was used by Flapan, et al. We call such graphs intrinsically linked in projective space. We fully characterize such graphs with connectivity 0,1 and 2. We also show that only one Peterse…

Study shows stable graphs in Heisenberg group are essentially planes.

The paper studies maps in the Heisenberg group and their images, called Rickman rugs.

Well-quasi-orders proved on embedded planar graphs.

The paper studies harmonic graphs in the Heisenberg group and their properties.

Study uniformly differentiable graphs in Carnot groups, proving area formulas.

We classify which complete multipartite graphs are intrinsically chiral.

We introduce a method for creating a special type of tree, called a tree position, from a weighted graph. Leaves of the tree correspond to vertices of the original graph, and the tree edges contain information which can be used to partition these vertices. By repeatedly applying reducing operations to the tree position…