2008/06/23 by Liviu I. Nicolaescu, Nicolaescu, Liviu I.
Mathematics · #Differential Geometry (math.DG) #FOS: Mathematics #Geometric Analysis and Curvature Flows #Geometric Topology (math.GT) #Geometric and Algebraic Topology #Homotopy and Cohomology in Algebraic Topology
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0806.3683
openalex publication_date 2008/06/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We define the total curvature of a semialgebraic embedding of a graph in the 3-dimensional Euclidean space. We prove that it satisfies a Chern-Lashof type inequality and we describe when the equality holds. We also prove a generalization of a classical result of Fary and Milnor stating that certain graphs cannot be knotted if they are not too curved. The techniques employed are Morse theoretic.