H. Edelsbrunner and A. Zomorodian, Computing Linking Numbers in a Filtration, Algorithms in Bioinformatics (LNCS 2149) (2001), pp. 112-127.

Abstract:

We develop fast algorithms for computing the linking number of a simplicial complex within a filtration. We give experimental results in applying our work toward the detection of non-trivial tangling in biomolecules, modeled as alpha complexes.

Bibtex: 

@incollection{ez-clnf-01,
    author = "Edelsbrunner, H. and Zomorodian, A.",
    title = "Computing Linking Numbers in a Filtration",
    booktitle = "Algorithms in Bioinformatics (LNCS 2149)",
    pages = "112--127",
    publisher = "Springer",
    address = "Berlin",
    year = 2001,
 }