English

Ropelength of tight polygonal knots

Computational Physics 2009-09-29 v1 General Physics

Abstract

A physical interpretation of the rope simulated by the SONO algorithm is presented. Properties of the tight polygonal knots delivered by the algorithm are analyzed. An algorithm for bounding the ropelength of a smooth inscribed knot is shown. Two ways of calculating the ropelength of tight polygonal knots are compared. An analytical calculation performed for a model knot shows that an appropriately weighted average should provide a good estimation of the minimum ropelength for relatively small numbers of edges.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.physics/0409108,
  title  = {Ropelength of tight polygonal knots},
  author = {Justyna Baranska and Piotr Pieranski and Eric J. Rawdon},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0409108},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

27 pages, to appear in "Physical and Numerical Models in Knot Theory and their Application to the Life Sciences"