Lattice stick number of spatial graphs

Abstract

The lattice stick number of knots is defined to be the minimal number of straight sticks in the cubic lattice required to construct a lattice stick presentation of the knot. We similarly define the lattice stick number [Formula: see text] of spatial graphs [Formula: see text] with vertices of degree at most six (necessary for embedding into the cubic lattice), and present an upper bound in terms of the crossing number [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] where [Formula: see text] has [Formula: see text] edges, [Formula: see text] vertices, [Formula: see text] cut-components, [Formula: see text] bouquet cut-components, and [Formula: see text] knot components.