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New Invariants of Spatial Graphs

Geometry/Topology

Speaker: Erica Flapan, Pomona College
Related Webpage: http://pages.pomona.edu/~elf04747/
Location: 2112 MSB
Start time: Tue, Feb 26 2019, 1:30PM

We introduce invariants of graphs embedded in \( S^3 \) which are related to the Wu invariant and the Simon invariant. Then we use our invariants to prove that \( K_7 \), all Möbius ladders with an odd number of rungs, and the Heawood graph are intrinsically chiral in \( S^3 \). We also use our invariants to obtain lower bounds for the minimal crossing number of particular embeddings of graphs in \( S^3 \).