1 research outputs found
The size of spanning disks for polygonal curves
Let be a closed polygonal curve in \RR^3 consisting of line
segments. Assume that is unknotted, so that it is the boundary of an
embedded disk in \RR^3. This paper considers the question: How many triangles
are needed to triangulate a Piecewise-Linear (PL) spanning disk of ? The
main result exhibits a family of unknotted polygons with edges, , such that the minimal number of triangles needed in any triangulated
spanning disk grows exponentially with . For each integer , there
is a closed, unknotted, polygonal curve in having less than
edges, with the property that any Piecewise-Linear triangulated disk spanning
the curve contains at least triangles.Comment: 17 pages, 16 figure