Hard Diagrams of Split Links

Deformations of knots and links in ambient space can be studied combinatorially on their diagrams via local modifications called Reidemeister moves. While it is well-known that, in order to move between equivalent diagrams with Reidemeister moves, one sometimes needs to insert excess crossings, there are significant gaps between the best known lower and upper bounds on the required number of these added crossings. In this article, we study the problem of turning a diagram of a split link into a split diagram, and we show that there exist split links with diagrams requiring an arbitrarily large number of such additional crossings. More precisely, we provide a family of diagrams of split links, so that any sequence of Reidemeister moves transforming a diagram with c crossings into a split diagram requires going through a diagram with $$\Omega (\sqrt{c})$$ Ω ( c ) extra crossings. Our proof relies on the framework of bubble tangles, as introduced by the first two authors, and a technique of Chambers and Liokumovitch to turn homotopies into isotopies in the context of Riemannian geometry.