On the complexity of meander-like diagrams of knots

It is known that each knot has a semimeander diagram (i.e. a diagram composed of two smooth simple arcs), however, the number of crossings in such a diagram can only be roughly estimated. In the present paper we provide a new estimate of the complexity of the semimeander diagrams. We prove that for each knot K with more than 10 crossings, there exists a semimeander diagram with no more than [Formula: see text] crossings, where [Formula: see text] is the crossing number of K. As a corollary, we provide new estimates of the complexity of other meander-like types of knot diagrams, such as meander diagrams and potholders. We also describe an efficient algorithm for constructing a semimeander diagram from a given one.