INTRINSICALLY LINKED GRAPHS WITH KNOTTED COMPONENTS

Abstract

We construct a graph G such that any embedding of G into R3 contains a nonsplit link of two components, where at least one of the components is a nontrivial knot. Further, for any m < n we produce a graph H so that every embedding of H contains a nonsplit n component link, where at least m of the components are nontrivial knots. We then turn our attention to complete graphs and show that for any given n, every embedding of a large enough complete graph contains a 2-component link whose linking number is a nonzero multiple of n. Finally, we show that if a graph is a Cartesian product of the form G × K2, it is intrinsically linked if and only if G contains one of K5, K3,3 or K4,2 as a minor.