An Algorithm for Detecting Intrinsically Knotted Graphs

Abstract

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 minimal IK graphs, and to find knotless embeddings for some graphs that had previously resisted attempts to classify them as IK or non-IK.