Related papers: When do knots in light stay knotted?
In null electromagnetic fields the electric and the magnetic field lines evolve like unbreakable elastic filaments in a fluid flow. In particular, their topology is preserved for all time. We prove that for every link $L$ there is such an…
Maxwell's equations allow for some remarkable solutions consisting of pulsed beams of light which have linked and knotted field lines. The preservation of the topological structure of the field lines in these solutions has previously been…
We construct a new family of null solutions to Maxwell's equations in free space whose field lines encode all torus knots and links. The evolution of these null fields, analogous to a compressible flow along the Poynting vector that is both…
We review properties of the null-field solutions of source-free Maxwell equations. We focus on the electric and magnetic field lines, especially on limit cycles, which actually can be knotted and/or linked at every given moment. We analyse…
Optical vortex knots have been realized in monochromatic laser beams, but monochromatic fields are stationary and their topology is frozen. Here we show that knotted spatiotemporal vortices, whose phase singularities form closed loops in…
We solve the Cauchy problem for the relativistic closed string in Minkowski space $M^{3+1}$, including the cases where the initial data has a knot like topology. We give the general conditions for the world sheet of a closed knotted string…
We construct a family of exact solutions to Maxwell's equations in which the points of zero intensity form knotted lines topologically equivalent to a given but arbitrary algebraic link. These lines of zero intensity, more commonly referred…
Knotted solutions to electromagnetism and fluid dynamics are investigated, based on relations we find between the two subjects. We can write fluid dynamics in electromagnetism language, but only on an initial surface, or for linear…
In last 50 years, a significant progress was noticed in medicine, communications and entertainment. Such advanced development of these fields was directly related to ability of controlling light. Photonics is exactly about this ability. At…
Several complementary approaches to investigate knotted solutions of Maxwell's equations in vacuum are now available in literature. However, only partial results towards a unified description of them have been achieved. This is potentially…
We present a new range of solutions of the Maxwell equations in vacuum in which the topology of the field lines is that of the whole torus knots set. Knotted electromagnetic fields are solutions of the Maxwell equations in vacuum in which…
This article addresses persistent tangles. These are tangles whose presence in a knot diagram forces that diagram to be knotted. We provide new methods for constructing persistent tangles. Our techniques rely mainly on the existence of…
We present a general construction of divergence-free knotted vector fields from complex scalar fields, whose closed field lines encode many kinds of knots and links, including torus knots, their cables, the figure-8 knot and its…
We consider the problem of deciding whether a polygonal knot in 3-dimensional Euclidean space is unknotted, capable of being continuously deformed without self-intersection so that it lies in a plane. We show that this problem, {\sc…
The curves of zero intensity of a complex optical field can form knots and links: optical vortex knots. Both theoretical constructions and experiments have so far been restricted to the very small families of torus knots or lemniscate…
The prominence of nulls in reconnection theory is due to the expected singular current density and the indeterminacy of field-lines at a magnetic null. Electron inertia changes the implications of both features. Magnetic field lines are…
Knotted line defects in continuous fields entrain a complex arrangement of the material sur- rounding them. Recent experimental realisations in optics, fluids and nematic liquid crystals make it important to fully characterise these…
In this paper we give necessary and sufficient conditions for a knot type to admit non-loose Legendrian and transverse representatives in some overtwisted contact structure, classify all non-loose rational unknots in lens spaces, and…
Making use of the equivalence between paraxial wave equation and two-dimensional Schr\"odinger equation, Gaussian beams of monochromatic light, possessing knotted nodal structures are obtained in an analytical way. These beams belong to the…
Physical knot theory, where knots are treated like physical objects, is important to many fields. One natural problem is to give a knot a uniform charge, and analyze the resulting electric field and electric potential. There have been some…