Related papers: Ordering the Reidemeister moves of a classical kno…

A classical knot is described by a one-stroke trajectory with entanglements of a string. The replica method appears as a powerful tool in statistical mechanics for a polymer or self-avoiding walk. We consider this replica N to 0 limit in…

We extend Milnor's mu-invariants of link homotopy to ordered (classical or virtual) tangles. Simple combinatorial formulas for mu-invariants are given in terms of counting trees in Gauss diagrams. Invariance under Reidemeister moves…

An involutive link is a link which is invariant under the standard rotation by 180 degrees in $S^3$. We establish an equivariant analogue of the work of Carter and Saito aimed at studying equivariant cobordisms between involutive links.…

Classical knot theory deals with {\em diagrams} and {\em invariants}. By means of horizontal {\em trisecants}, we construct a new theory of classical braids with invariants valued in {\em pictures}. These pictures are closely related to…

A parity is a rule to assign labels to the crossings of knot diagrams in a way compatible with Reidemeister moves. Parity functors can be viewed as parities which provide to each knot diagram its own coefficient group that contains parities…

Twisted knot theory, introduced by M.O.Bourgoin, is a generalization of virtual knot theory. It is easily shown that any virtual knot can be deformed into a trivial knot by a finite sequence of generalized Reidemeister moves and two…

To an oriented link in a solid torus we associate a trace graph in a thickened torus in such a way that links are isotopic if and only if their trace graphs can be related by moves of finitely many standard types. The key ingredient is a…

This paper explores the problem of unknotting closed braids and classical knots in mathematical knot theory. We apply evolutionary computation methods to learn sequences of moves that simplify knot diagrams, and show that this can be…

We prove that any arc-presentation of the unknot admits a monotonic simplification by elementary moves; this yields a simple algorithm for recognizing the unknot. We obtain similar results for split links and composite links.

Let $D(p,q)$ be the usual knot diagram of the $(p,q)$-torus knot, that is, $D(p,q)$ is the closure of the $p$-braid $(\sigma_1^{-1} \sigma_2^{-1}... \sigma_{p-1}^{-1})^q$. As is well-known, $D(p,q)$ and $D(q,p)$ represent the same knot. It…

In this paper we present a systematic method to generate prime knot and prime link minimal triple-point projections, and then classify all classical prime knots and prime links with triple-crossing number at most four. We also extend the…

We discuss the possibility of the existence of finite algorithms that may give distinct knot classes. In particular we present two attempts for such algorithms which seem promising, one based on knot projections on a plane, the other on…

We define an invariant of tangles and framed tangles given a finite crossed module and a pair of functions, called a Reidemeister pair, satisfying natural properties. We give several examples of Reidemeister pairs derived from racks,…

Every link in R^3 can be represented by a one-vertex ribbon graph. We prove a Markov type theorem on this subset of link diagrams.

Given a homomorphism from a link group to a group, we introduce a $K_1$-class in another way, which is a generalization of the 1-variable Alexander polynomial. We compare the $K_1$-class with $K_1$-classes in \cite{Nos} and with…

The dual to a tetrahedron consists of a single vertex at which four edges and six faces are incident. Along each edge, three faces converge. A 2-foam is a compact topological space such that each point has a neighborhood homeomorphic to a…

A shadow diagram is a knot diagram with under-over information omitted; a shadow movie is a sequence of shadow diagrams related by shadow Reidemeister moves. We show that not every shadow movie arises as the shadow of a Reidemeister movie,…

We study the gordian graph of all knots in $\R^3$: two knots are adjacent if they differ by a single crossing change. We prove that this graph contains isometrically an infinite countable tree with infinite valency, and that the complement…

In this brief note, we give an explicit sequence of Heegaard moves interpolating between local versions of the Kauffman-states Heegaard diagram and the planar Heegaard diagram used in knot Floer homology, and show how these local moves can…

We give a simple example showing that a knot or link diagram that lies in the ${\mathbb{Z}}^2$ lattice is not necessarily the projection of a lattice stick knot or link in the ${\mathbb{Z}}^3$ lattice, and we give a necessary and sufficient…