An infinite family of knots whose hexagonal mosaic number is only realized in non-reduced projections

Abstract: We give an infinite family of knots such that for any given $r \geq 3$, the family contains a knot which can be embedded on a hexagonal $r$-mosaic, but cannot fit on a hexagonal $r$-mosaic in an embedding that achieves its crossing number. This extends the square mosaic result of Ludwig, Evans, and Paat \cite{L}. We also introduce a new tool for systematically finding all possible flypes for the projection of any reduced, alternating prime link thus making it easier to find all possible minimal crossing embeddings of prime, alternating knots.