Related papers: Knotting probability of self-avoiding polygons und…

This paper presents evidence supporting the surprising conjecture that in the topological category the slice genus of a satellite knot $P(K)$ is bounded above by the sum of the slice genera of $K$ and $P(U)$. Our main result establishes…

In this paper we investigate the Alexander polynomial of (1,1)-knots, which are knots lying in a 3-manifold with genus one at most, admitting a particular decomposition. More precisely, we study the connections between the Alexander…

We consider the space of all smooth knots in the 3-sphere isotopic to a given knot, with the aim of finding a small subspace onto which this large space deformation retracts. For torus knots and many hyperbolic knots we show the subspace…

Let $K\subset S^3$ be a knot, $X:= S^3\setminus K$ its complement, and $\mathbb{T}$ the circle group identified with $\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}$. To any oriented long knot diagram of $K$, we associate a quadratic polynomial in variables…

Ropelength and embedding thickness are related measures of geometric complexity of classical knots and links in Euclidean space. In their recent work, Freedman and Krushkal posed a question regarding lower bounds for embedding thickness of…

Given a knot $K$ in a closed orientable manifold $M$ we define the growth rate of the tunnel number of $K$ to be $gr_t(K) = \limsup_{n \to \infty} \frac{t(nK) - n t(K)}{n-1}$. As our main result we prove that the Heegaard genus of $M$ is…

For any integer n > 2, the n-fold cyclic branched cover M of an alternating prime knot K in the 3-sphere determines K, meaning that if K is a knot in the 3-sphere that is not equivalent to K then its n-fold cyclic branched cover cannot be…

The representation of knots by petal diagrams (Adams et al. 2012) naturally defines a sequence of distributions on the set of knots. In this article we establish some basic properties of this randomized knot model. We prove that in the…

The stable Kauffman conjecture posits that a knot in $S^3$ is slice if and only if it admits a slice derivative. We prove a related statement: A knot is handle-ribbon (also called strongly homotopy-ribbon) in a homotopy 4-ball $B$ if and…

Let $\mathcal {M}$ be the space of all, including singular, long knots in 3-space and for which a fixed projection into the plane is an immersion. Let $cl(\Sigma^{(1)}_{iness})$ be the closure of the union of all singular knots in $\mathcal…

Monte Carlo simulations are used to study the conformational behavior of a semiflexible polymer confined to cylindrical and conical channels. The channels are sufficiently narrow that the conditions for the Odijk regime are marginally…

We study spectral gaps of cellular differentials for finite cyclic coverings of knot complements. Their asymptotics can be expressed in terms of irrationality exponents associated with ratios of logarithms of algebraic numbers determined by…

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…

Let K be a knot in the 3-sphere. A slope p/q is said to be characterising for K if whenever p/q surgery on K is homeomorphic, via an orientation-preserving homeomorphism, to p/q surgery on another knot K' in the 3-sphere, then K and K' are…

Based on an estimate of the knot entropy of a worm-like chain we predict that the interplay of bending energy and confinement entropy will result in a compact metastable configuration of the knot that will diffuse, without spreading, along…

A knot k in a closed orientable 3-manifold is called nonsimple if the exterior of k possesses a properly embedded essential surface of nonnegative Euler characteristic. We show that if k is a nonsimple prime tunnel number one knot in a lens…

We give three algorithms to determine the crosscap number of a knot in the 3-sphere using $0$-efficient triangulations and normal surface theory. Our algorithms are shown to be correct for a larger class of complements of knots in closed…

It is a major unsolved problem as to whether unknot recognition - that is, testing whether a given closed loop in R^3 can be untangled to form a plain circle - has a polynomial time algorithm. In practice, trivial knots (which can be…

To every knot (or link) diagram K, we associate a cluster algebra A that contains a cluster x with the property that every cluster variable in x specializes to the Alexander polynomial of K. We call x the knot cluster of A. Furthermore,…

Given a knot K in an Euclidean space E and a finite dimensional space V of smooth functions on K, we express the expected number of critical points of a random function in V in terms of an integral-geometric invariant of K and V. When V…