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A knot is a circle piecewise-linearly embedded into the 3-sphere. The topology of a knot is intimately related to that of its exterior, which is the complement of an open regular neighborhood of the knot. Knots are typically encoded by…
The contents of this 6-page paper have been subsumed into the 13-page paper, "A note on closed 3-braids", arXiv:0802.1072 [math.GT]. This paper is correct, but contains less information than the new one. The topological classification of…
We show that a knot in $S^3$ with an infinite number of distinct incompressible Seifert surfaces contains a closed incompressible surface in its complement.
A fundamental question for simplicial complexes is to find the lowest dimensional Euclidean space in which they can be embedded. We investigate this question for order complexes of posets. We show that order complexes of thick geometric…
We investigate knot-theoretic properties of geometrically defined curvature energies such as integral Menger curvature. Elementary radii-functions, such as the circumradius of three points, generate a family of knot energies guaranteeing…
We study relations between unknotting number and crossing number of a spatial embedding of a handcuff-graph and a theta curve. It is well known that for any non-trivial knot $K$ twice the unknotting number of $K$ is less than or equal to…
A veritable zoo of different knots is seen in the ensemble of looped polymer chains, whether created computationally or observed in vitro. At short loop lengths, the spectrum of knots is dominated by the trivial knot (unknot). The…
Large scale molecular dynamics simulations on graphic processing units (GPUs) are employed to study the scaling behavior of ring polymers with various topological constraints in melts. Typical sizes of rings containing $3_1$, $5_1$ knots…
Given a simplicial complex $K$, we consider several notions of geometric complexity of embeddings of $K$ in a Euclidean space ${\mathbb R}^d$: thickness, distortion, and refinement complexity (the minimal number of simplices needed for a PL…
We describe a procedure for creating infinite families of hyperbolic knots having unique minimal genus Seifert surface. A large subset of these knots have the further property that the surface cannot be the sole compact leaf of a depth one…
This paper discusses some geometric ideas associated with knots in real projective 3-space $\mathbb{R}P^3$. These ideas are borrowed from classical knot theory. Since knots in $\mathbb{R}P^3$ are classified into three disjoint classes, -…
We present computer simulations to examine probability distributions of gyration radius for the no-thickness closed polymers of N straight segments of equal length. We are particularly interested in the conditional distributions when the…
We find further evidence for the conjecture relating large N Chern-Simons theory on S^3 with topological string on the resolved conifold geometry by showing that the Wilson loop observable of a simple knot on S^3 (for any representation)…
We consider homologically essential simple closed curves on Seifert surfaces of genus one knots in $S^3$, and in particular those that are unknotted or slice in $S^3$. We completely characterize all such curves for most twist knots: they…
We use the LMO invariant to find constraints for a knot to admit a purely or reflectively cosmetic surgery. We also get a constraint for knots to admit a Lens space surgery, and some information for characterizing slopes.
We introduce a new construction of surfaces in $D^2 \times B^2$, called knitted surfaces or BMW surfaces, which are described as the trace of deformations of knits. Here, knits are tangles obtained from classical braids from splicing at…
Virtual knots are defined diagrammatically as a collection of figures, called virtual knot diagrams, that are considered equivalent up to finite sequences of extended Reidemeister moves. By contrast, knots in $\mathbb{R}^3$ can be defined…
We use the rational Witt class of a knot in the 3-sphere as a tool for addressing questions about its unknotting number. We apply these tools to several low crossing knots (151 knots with 11 crossing and 100 knots with 12 crossings) and to…
These notes were prepared to supplement the talk that I gave on Feb 19, 2004, at the First East Asian School of Knots and Related Topics, Seoul, South Korea. In this article I review aspects of the interconnections between braids, knots and…
We prove the existence of families of distinct isotopy classes of physical unknots through the key concept of parametrised thickness. These unknots have prescribed length, tube thickness, a uniform bound on curvature, and cannot be…