Structure and classification of torus theta-curves
Geometric Topology
2026-04-01 v2
Abstract
We study theta-curves embedded in a standard torus in the 3-sphere. We show that each nontrivial torus knot together with an essential arc determines a prime theta-curve, yielding explicit infinite families of prime theta-curves. We compute their constituent knots and identify the structure governing these embeddings, which leads to a complete classification of torus theta-curves up to ambient isotopy and homeomorphism of the 3-sphere. In particular, Kinoshita's theta-curve does not lie on a standard torus.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2511.09848,
title = {Structure and classification of torus theta-curves},
author = {Jack S. Calcut and Samantha E. Nieman},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.09848},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
Updated title, abstract, and introduction; results unchanged