arXiv research

The H(n)-move simplifies virtual and welded knots and links.

New diagonal move simplifies knots and links efficiently.

The paper studies unknotting operations and numbers for plus-welded knotoids.

New findings on knot operations challenge a long-standing conjecture.

Region crossing change is a local transformation on a knot or link diagram. We show that a region crossing change on a knot diagram is an unknotting operation, and we define the region unknotting numbers for a knot diagram and a knot.

The paper explores when specific knot operations simplify diagrams.

Study uses instanton Floer theory to obstruct knot unknotting operations.

Study on unknotting twisted knots using arc shift and region arc shift moves.

This paper concerns the H(2)-unknotting numbers of links related to 2-bridge links. It consists of three parts. In the first part, we consider a necessary and sufficient condition for a 2-bridge link to have H(2)-unknotting number one. The second part concerns an explicit form of composite links with H(2)-unknotting nu…

New invariant measures how many twists are needed to unknot welded knots.

Lower bounds on unknotting number for cabled knots.

4-move kills Alexander polynomial

Region crossing change for a knot or a proper link is an unknotting operation. In this paper, we provide a sharp upper bound on the region unknotting number for a large class of torus knots and proper links. Also, we discuss conditions on torus links to be proper.

New invariants show stronger virtual knot sets.

In this paper, we prove that region crossing change on a link diagram is an unknotting operation if and only if the link is proper. A description of the behavior of region crossing change on link diagrams is given. Furthermore we also discuss the relation between region crossing change and the Arf invariant of proper l…

Paper shows that for torus knots, the pinch number equals the unoriented band unknotting number.

The paper classifies virtual links using the arc shift operation.

Study virtualized Delta, Sharp, and Pass moves for oriented virtual knots and links.

All knots with unknotting number ≤ 21 are smoothly slice in K3 surface.

Generalizes region select game to $k$-colored knot diagrams.

Bankwitz characterized an alternating diagram representing the trivial knot. A non-alternating diagram is called almost alternating if one crossing change makes the diagram alternating. We characterize an almost alternaing diagram representing the trivial knot. As a corollary we determine an unknotting number one alter…

We prove that the crossing changes, Delta moves, and sharp moves are unknotting operations on welded knots.

New virtualized Δ-move simplifies virtual knots and links.

Let P be a knot in an unknotted solid torus (i.e. a satellite operator or pattern), K a knot in S^3 and P(K) the satellite of K with pattern P. For any satellite operator P, this correspondence gives a function P : C -> C on the set of smooth concordance classes of knots. We give examples of winding number one satellit…

In a recent work of Ayaka Shimizu$^{[5]}$, she defined an operation named region crossing change on link diagrams, and showed that region crossing change is an unknotting operation for knot diagrams. In this paper, we prove that region crossing change on a 2-component link diagram is an unknotting operation if and only…

We generalize the idea of unknotting knots to Seifert surfaces. We define an operation called ribbon twist which serves as the equivalent of a crossing change for knots. A Seifert surface is considered untwisted, the equivalent to unknotted, if it is isotopic to a standardly embedded n-fold punctured torus. A Seifert s…

Let $n$ be a positive integer. The aim of this paper is to study two local moves $V(n)$ and $V^{n}$ on welded links, which are generalizations of the crossing virtualization. We show that the $V(n)$-move is an unknotting operation on welded knots for any $n$, and give a classification of welded links up to $V(n)$-moves…

If a rectangular diagram represents the trivial knot, then it can be deformed into the rectangular diagram with only two vertical edges by a finite sequence of merge operations and exchange operations, without increasing the number of vertical edges, which was shown by I. A. Dynnikov. We show in this paper that we need…

We investigate the behaviour of Rasmussen's invariant $s$ under the sharp operation on knots and obtain a lower bound for the sharp unknotting number. This bound leads us to an interesting move that transforms arbitrary knots into non-alternating knots.

If a rectangular diagram represents the trivial knot, then it can be deformed into the trivial rectangular diagram with only four edges by a finite sequence of merge operations and exchange operations, without increasing the number of edges, which was shown by I. A. Dynnikov. Using this, Henrich and Kauffman gave an up…

In this paper we propose {\it a region choice problem} for a knot projection. This problem is an integral extension of Shimizu's 'region crossing change unknotting operation.' We show that there exists a solution of the region choice problem for all knot projections.

Study on hard Legendrian unknots using normal rulings.

New method to untangle knots using null-homologous twists.

Stabilization operation for high-dimensional contact manifolds, proving many links are non-simple.

We conjecture that satellite operations are either constant or have infinite rank in the concordance group. We reduce this to the difficult case of winding number zero satellites, and use $SO(3)$ gauge theory to provide a general criterion sufficient for the image of a satellite operation to generate an infinite rank s…

Agent finds unknotting sequences for complex knots.

The (ordinary) unknotting-number of 1-dimensional knots, which is defined by using the crossing-change, is a very basic and important invariant. It is very natural to consider the `unknotting-number' associated with other local-moves on n-dimensional knots, where n is a natural number. In this paper we prove the follow…

Shows large unknotting number for simple knots.

In this paper, we introduce an equivalence relation on the set of local moves and classify local moves, called the extended $ST$-moves, up to the equivalence. Moreover, by inducing a binary relation on the set of equivalence classes of local moves, we show that an extended $ST$-move realizes the crossing change or the …

Unified theories for colored sl(2) knot homology.

We prove that if an alternating knot has unknotting number one, then there exists an unknotting crossing in any alternating diagram. This is done by showing that the obstruction to unknotting number one developed by Greene in his work on alternating 3-braid knots is sufficient to identify all unknotting number one alte…

Grid homology shows knot unknotting lower bound.

We determine a wide class of knots, which includes unknotting number one knots, within which Khovanov homology detects the unknot. A corollary is that the Khovanov homology of many satellite knots, including the Whitehead double, detects the unknot.

RL pipeline simplifies knot diagrams, including very hard unknots.

Determining unknotting numbers is a large and widely studied problem. We consider the more general question of the unknotting number of a spatial graph. We show the unknotting number of spatial graphs is subadditive. Let $g$ be an embedding of a planar graph $G$, then we show $u(g) \geq \max\{u(s) |$ $s$ is a non-overl…

The virtual unknotting number of a virtual knot is the minimal number of crossing changes that makes the virtual knot to be the unknot, which is defined only for virtual knots virtually homotopic to the unknot. We focus on the virtual knot obtained from the standard (p,q)-torus knot diagram by replacing all crossings o…

A bound on knot unknotting using equivariant signature.

Three hard diagrams of the unknot require extra crossings to simplify.