Unravelling Tangled Graphs

Authors

Catherine Farkas, University of Illinois at Chicago
Erica Flapan, Pomona CollegeFollow
Wynn Sullivan '10, Pomona College

Student Co-author

Pomona Undergraduate

Document Type

Article

Department

Mathematics (Pomona)

Publication Date

2012

Keywords

Spatial graphs, almost unknotted graphs, tangles, ravels, θn

Abstract

Motivated by proposed entangled molecular structures known as ravels, we introduce a method for constructing such entanglements from 2-string tangles. We then show that for most (but not all) arborescent tangles this construction yields either a planar θ₄ graph or contains a knot.

Rights Information

© 2012 World Scientific Publishing Co.

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

DOI

10.1142/S0218216512500745

Recommended Citation

C. Farkas, E. Flapan, W. Sullivan, Unraveling Tangled Graphs, Journal of Knot Theory and its Ramifications, Vol 21, No. 7, (2012). doi: 10.1142/S0218216512500745