When will the crossing number of an alternating link decrease by two via a crossing change?

Abstract

Let $D$ be a reduced alternating diagram of a non-split link $L$ and $\tilde{L}$ be the link whose diagram is obtained from $D$ by a crossing change. If $\tilde{L}$ is alternating, then $c(\tilde{L})\le c(L)-2$. In this paper we explore when $c(\tilde{L})=c(L)-2$ holds and obtain a simple sufficient and necessary condition in terms of plane graphs corresponding to $L$. This result is obtained via analyzing the behavior of the Tutte polynomial of the signed plane graph corresponding to $\tilde{L}$.

24 pages, 7 figures