Knot diagrams on a punctured sphere as a model of string figures

Abstract

A string figure is topologically a trivial knot lying on an imaginary plane orthogonal to the fingers with some crossings. The fingers prevent cancellation of these crossings. As a mathematical model of string figure, we consider a knot diagram on the [Formula: see text]-plane in [Formula: see text]-space missing some straight lines parallel to the [Formula: see text]-axis. These straight lines correspond to fingers. We study minimal number of crossings of these knot diagrams under Reidemeister moves missing these lines.