English

Solving Infinite Kolam in Knot Theory

Discrete Mathematics 2012-02-23 v1 Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

In south India, there are traditional patterns of line-drawings encircling dots, called ``Kolam'', among which one-line drawings or the ``infinite Kolam'' provide very interesting questions in mathematics. For example, we address the following simple question: how many patterns of infinite Kolam can we draw for a given grid pattern of dots? The simplest way is to draw possible patterns of Kolam while judging if it is infinite Kolam. Such a search problem seems to be NP complete. However, it is certainly not. In this paper, we focus on diamond-shaped grid patterns of dots, (1-3-5-3-1) and (1-3-5-7-5-3-1) in particular. By using the knot-theory description of the infinite Kolam, we show how to find the solution, which inevitably gives a sketch of the proof for the statement ``infinite Kolam is not NP complete.'' Its further discussion will be given in the final section.

Cite

@article{arxiv.0710.1976,
  title  = {Solving Infinite Kolam in Knot Theory},
  author = {Yukitaka Ishimoto},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0710.1976},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

13 pages, 2 figures, the final version for FORMA with typo fixed

R2 v1 2026-06-21T09:29:38.588Z