Related papers: Normal and Jones surfaces of knots
In this paper we prove that the problem of deciding contractibility of an arbitrary closed curve on the boundary of a 3-manifold is in NP. We emphasize that the manifold and the curve are both inputs to the problem. Moreover, our algorithm…
It has been argued based on electric-magnetic duality and other ingredients that the Jones polynomial of a knot in three dimensions can be computed by counting the solutions of certain gauge theory equations in four dimensions. Here, we…
Let $M$ be a 3-manifold. Every knotted (embedded) surface in $M \times \R$ can be moved via an ambient isotopy in such a way that its projection into $M$ is a generic surface. A surface is generic if every point on it is either a regular,…
Edmonds famously proved that every periodic knot of genus g possesses an equivariant Seifert surface of genus g. We show that this is not true if one instead considers nonorientable spanning surfaces of a periodic knot. We demonstrate by…
We present some algorithms that provide useful topological information about curves in surfaces. One of the main algorithms computes the geometric intersection number of two properly embedded 1-manifolds $C_1$ and $C_2$ in a compact…
This paper discusses the geometry of a surface endowed with a slope metric. We obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for any surface of revolution to admit a strongly convex slope metric. Such conditions involve certain inequalities…
The first algorithm for sampling the space of thick equilateral knots, as a function of thickness, will be described. This algorithm is based on previous algorithms of applying random reflections. To prove the existence of the algorithm, we…
We have a knot quandle and a fundamental class as invariants for a surface-knot. These invariants can be defined for a classical knot in a similar way, and it is known that the pair of them is a complete invariant for classical knots. In…
Given a knot in $S^3$, one can associate to it a surface diffeomorphism in two different ways. First, an arbitrary knot in $S^{3}$ can be represented by braids, which can be thought of as diffeomorphisms of punctured disks. Second, if the…
This paper examines the relationship between the knotting of an embedded surface in $\R^3$ and the knotting of its fold curves, formed by the singular set of projection to a plane. The first result shows that every surface, no matter how…
We give necessary conditions of a surface-knot to be ribbon concordant to another, by introducing a new variant of the cocycle invariant of surface-knots in addition to using the invariant already known. We demonstrate that twist-spins of…
We study systems of $2$-tangle equations which play an important role in the analysis of enzyme actions on DNA strands. We show that every system of framed tangle equations has at most one framed rational solution. Furthermore, we show that…
Topological gauge theories in four dimensions which admit surface operators provide a natural framework for realizing homological knot invariants. Every such theory leads to an action of the braid group on branes on the corresponding moduli…
Closed subschemes in projective space with a fixed Hilbert polynomial are parametrized by a Hilbert scheme. We classify the smooth ones. We identify numerical conditions on a polynomial that completely determine when the Hilbert scheme is…
We investigate the computational complexity of some problems in three-dimensional topology and geometry. We show that the problem of determining a bound on the genus of a knot in a 3-manifold, is NP-complete. Using similar ideas, we show…
The crosscap number of a knot is an invariant describing the non-orientable surface of smallest genus that the knot bounds. Unlike knot genus (its orientable counterpart), crosscap numbers are difficult to compute and no general algorithm…
There is a map, defined and studied by Jones, from Thompson's group $F$ to knots. Jones proved that every knot is in the image of this map -- that is, that every knot can be seen as the "knot closure" of a Thompson group element. We…
We derive bounds on the length of the meridian and the cusp volume of hyperbolic knots in terms of the topology of essential surfaces spanned by the knot. We provide an algorithmically checkable criterion that guarantees that the meridian…
We study a variant of Newton's algorithm applied to under-determined systems of non-smooth equations. The notion of regularity employed in our work is based on Newton differentiability, which generalizes semi-smoothness. The classic notion…
We construct a quantum algorithm to approximate efficiently the colored Jones polynomial of the plat presentation of any oriented link L at a fixed root of unity q. Our construction is based on SU(2) Chern-Simons topological quantum field…