arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Blake Mellor.
In this paper we complete the classification of topological symmetry groups for complete graphs $K_n$ by characterizing which $K_n$ can have a cyclic group, a dihedral group, or a subgroup of $D_m \times D_m$ where $m$ is odd, as its topological symmetry group.
We determine for which $n$, the complete bipartite graph $K_{n,n}$ has an embedding in $S^3$ whose topological symmetry group is isomorphic to one of the polyhedral groups: $A_4$, $A_5$, or $S_4$.
We determine for which $m$, the complete graph $K_m$ has an embedding in $S^3$ whose topological symmetry group is isomorphic to one of the polyhedral groups: $A_4$, $A_5$, or $S_4$.
It is shown that for any locally knotted edge of a 3-connected graph in $S^3$, there is a ball that contains all of the local knots of that edge and is unique up to an isotopy setwise fixing the graph. This result is applied to the study of topological symmetry groups of graphs embedded in $S^3$.
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 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 polynomial of $Q_i$.
We find the minimal number of links in an embedding of any complete $k$-partite graph on 7 vertices (including $K_7$, which has at least 21 links). We give either exact values or upper and lower bounds for the minimal number of links for all complete $k$-partite graphs on 8 vertices. We also look at larger complete bipartite graphs, and state a conjecture relating minimal linking embeddings with minimal book embeddings.
Two natural generalizations of knot theory are the study of spatial graphs and virtual knots. Our goal is to unify these two approaches into the study of virtual spatial graphs. This paper is a survey, and does not contain any new results. We state the definitions, provide some examples, and survey the known results. We hope that this paper will help lead to rapid development of the area.
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 examples of intrinsically virtually linked and knotted graphs. As a byproduct, we introduce the {\it virtual unknotting number} of a knot, and show that any knot with non-trivial Jones polynomial has virtual unknotting number at least 2.
Two natural generalizations of knot theory are the study of spatially embedded graphs, and Kauffman's theory of virtual knots. In this paper we combine these approaches to begin the study of virtual spatial graphs.
Chord diagrams on circles and their intersection graphs (also known as circle graphs) have been intensively studied, and have many applications to the study of knots and knot invariants, among others. However, chord diagrams on more general graphs have not been studied, and are potentially equally valuable in the study of spatial graphs. We will define chord diagrams for planar embeddings of planar graphs and their intersection graphs, and prove some basic results. Then, as an application, we will introduce Gauss codes for immersions of graphs in the plane and give algorithms to determine whether a particular crossing sequence is realizable as the Gauss code of an immersed graph.
We use Polyak's skein relation to give a new proof that Milnor's string link homotopy invariants are finite type invariants, and to develop a recursive relation for their associated weight systems. We show that the obstruction to the triviality of these weight systems is the presence of a certain kind of spanning tree in the intersection graph of a chord diagram.
In previous work, the author defined the intersection graph of a chord diagram associated with string links (as in the theory of finite type invariants). In this paper, we classify the trees which can be obtained as intersection graphs of string link diagrams.
We extend the notion of intersection graphs for knots in the theory of finite type invariants to string links. We use our definition to develop weight systems for string links via the adjacency matrix of the intersection graph, and show that these weight systems are related to the weight systems induced by the Conway and Homfly polynomials.
In previous work, we defined the intersection graph of a chord diagram associated with a string link (as in the theory of finite type invariants). In this paper, we look at the case when this graph is a tree, and we show that in many cases these trees determine the chord diagram (modulo the usual 1-term and 4-term relations).
Milnor's triple linking numbers of a link in the 3-sphere are interpreted geometrically in terms of the pattern of intersections of the Seifert surfaces of the components of the link. This generalizes the well known formula as an algebraic count of triple points when the pairwise linking numbers vanish.
We show that the adjacency matrices of the intersection graphs of chord diagrams satisfy the 2-term relations of Bar-Natan and Garoufalides [bg], and hence give rise to weight systems. Among these weight systems are those associated with the Conway and HOMFLYPT polynomials. We extend these ideas to looking at a space of {\it marked} chord diagrams modulo an extended set of 2-term relations, define a set of generators for this space, and again derive weight systems from the adjacency matrices of the (marked) intersection graphs. Among these weight systems are those associated with the Kauffman polynomial.
We show that for links with at most 5 components, the only finite type homotopy invariants are products of the linking numbers. In contrast, we show that for links with at least 9 components, there must exist finite type homotopy invariants which are not products of the linking numbers. This corrects previous errors of the first author.