I have a few questions about nonplanar "stick circuits" (or hexagons and higher $n$-gons) that you might be able to help with:
(I know that $n=6$ is the minimum number of points to form a stick knot.)
Given $n=6$ points in $\mathbb{R}^3$ in general position connected by a specific "stick circuit" (nonplanar hexagon), what test can be done to see if it forms a stick knot vs. an unknot?
Given $n=6$ points in $\mathbb{R}^3$ in general position, there are 60 different stick circuits connecting them. True or false, at least one forms a knot?
Given $n=6$ points in $\mathbb{R}^3$ in general position, does the minimum-length stick circuit on these $n$ points ever form a knot? ("knotted 6-point traveling salesman problem with return)
All these can be generalized to $n > 6$.
These questions occurred to me over the last few days. I suspect (1) has a known answer but I have no idea about (2) or (3).