Related papers: A note on closed 3-braids

The entanglement of open curves in 3-space appears in many physical systems and affects their material properties and function. A new framework in knot theory was introduced recently, that enables to characterize the complexity of…

In this paper, we consider two properties on the braid index of a two-bridge knot. We prove an inequality on the braid indices of two-bridge knots if there exists an epimorphism between their knot groups. Moreover, we provide the average…

Two distinct knots are said to be friends if their complements, filled along the 0-slope, produce diffeomorphic 3-manifolds. In this article, we develop a practical algorithm, implemented using SnapPy and Regina, to search for a friend of a…

We give some conditions on positive braids with at least two full twists that ensure their closure is a hyperbolic knot, with applications to the geometric classification of T-links, arising from dynamics, and twisted torus knots.

We study the degree of polynomial representations of knots. We give the lexicographic degree of all two-bridge knots with 11 or fewer crossings. First, we estimate the total degree of a lexicographic parametrisation of such a knot. This…

We prove that positive knots and knots with braid index three in the 3-sphere satisfy the Property P conjecture.

It has been conjectured by Rovelli that there is a correspondence between the space of link classes of a Riemannian 3-manifold and the space of 3-geometries (on the same manifold). An exact statement of his conjecture will be established…

Physical knots and links are one-dimensional submanifolds of R^3 with fixed length and thickness. We show that isotopy classes in this category can differ from those of classical knot and link theory. In particular we exhibit a Gordian…

This article is about Artin's braid group and its role in knot theory. We set ourselves two goals: (i) to provide enough of the essential background so that our review would be accessible to graduate students, and (ii) to focus on those…

We construct examples of knots that have isomorphic nth-order Alexander modules, but non-isomorphic nth-order linking forms, showing that the linking forms provide more information than the modules alone. This generalizes work of Trotter,…

Given a connected cobordism between two knots in the 3-sphere, our main result is an inequality involving torsion orders of the knot Floer homology of the knots, and the number of local maxima and the genus of the cobordism. This has…

We use matchings on Lyndon words to classify flat knots up to 8 crossings. Using flat knots invariants such as the based matrix, the $\phi$-invariant, the flat arrow polynomial, and the flat Jones-Krushkal polynomial, we distinguish all…

In this paper, we study the structure of braid graphs in simply-laced Coxeter systems. We prove that every reduced expression has a unique factorization as a product of so-called links, which in turn induces a decomposition of the braid…

A near-group category is an additively semisimple category with a product such that all but one of the simple objects is invertible. We classify braided structures on near-group categories, and give explicit numerical formulas for their…

The Alexander theorem (1923) and the Markov theorem (1936) are two classical results in knot theory that show respectively that every link is the closure of a braid and that braids that have the same closure are related by a finite number…

In a recent paper, McMullen showed an inequality between the Thurston norm and the Alexander norm of a 3-manifold. This generalizes the well-known fact that twice the genus of a knot is bounded from below by the degree of the Alexander…

Given a knot or link in the handlebody, $H_g$, of genus $g$ we prove that it can always be represented as the plat closure of a braid in $H_g$. We further establish the Hilden braid group for the handlebody, as a subgroup of the mixed braid…

We consider several classes of knotted objects, namely usual, virtual and welded pure braids and string links, and two equivalence relations on those objects, induced by either self-crossing changes or self-virtualizations. We provide a…

We investigate the twisted Alexander polynomial of a 2-bridge knot associated to a Fox coloring. For several families of 2-bridge knots, including but not limited to, torus knots and genus-one knots, we derive formulae for these twisted…

We develop a calculus of surgery data, called bridged links, which involves besides links also pairs of balls that describe one-handle attachements. As opposed to the usual link calculi of Kirby and others this description uses only…