Upper Bounds for Ropelength as a Function of Crossing Number

Jason Cantarella, X. W. Faber, Chad A. Mullikin

Published 2002-10-16Version 2

The paper provides bounds for the ropelength of a link in terms of the crossing numbers of its split components. As in earlier papers, the bounds grow with the square of the crossing number; however, the constant involved is a substantial improvement on previous results. The proof depends essentially on writing links in terms of their arc-presentations, and has as a key ingredient Bae and Park's theorem that an n-crossing link has an arc-presentation with less than or equal to n+2 arcs.