The non-orientable surface pinning complexity conjecture

From papers

Let Σ\Sigma be a non-orientable surface and let sNs\in\mathbb N. The problems Pin(Σ,s)\mathsf{Pin}(\Sigma,s) and SimplePin(Σ,s)\mathsf{SimplePin}(\Sigma,s) are the pinning and simple-pinning decision problems for multiloops with ss strands on Σ\Sigma.

Non-orientable surface complexity conjecture. Both Pin(Σ,s)\mathsf{Pin}(\Sigma,s) and SimplePin(Σ,s)\mathsf{SimplePin}(\Sigma,s) are in P\textsf{P} when s3s\leq 3, and are NP\textsf{NP}-complete when s4s\geq 4.

The paper's results rely on theorems for orientable surfaces, so the corresponding complexity classification for non-orientable surfaces is left as a further direction.

Progress summary

Nothing recorded yet. Refresh searches the literature and the public web for attempts on this problem, and writes the first summary here.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Eric Seo, Christopher-Lloyd Simon and Ben Stucky, “The complexity of pinning simple multiloops”, arXiv:2602.07344 (2026).

Solutions 0

No solutions have been posted yet.