Related papers: Knotty knits are tangles on tori
We introduce a new combinatorial method to encode knots and links with applications to knot invariants. Clasp diagrams defined in this paper are combinatorial blueprints for building knot diagrams out of full twists on two strings rather…
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…
Knots have a twisted history in quantum physics. They were abandoned as failed models of atoms. Only much later was the connection between knot invariants and Wilson loops in topological quantum field theory discovered. Here we show that…
We construct new knot polynomials. Let $V$ be the standard solid torus in 3-space and let $pr$ be its standard projection onto an annulus. Let $M$ be the space of all smooth oriented knots in $V$ such that the restriction of $pr$ is an…
The deep connection among braids, knots and topological physics has provided valuable insights into studying topological states in various physical systems. However, identifying distinct braid groups and knot topology embedded in…
We show that a topological quantum computer based on the evaluation of a Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev TQFT invariant of knots can always be arranged so that the knot diagrams with which one computes are diagrams of hyperbolic knots. The…
Distinct knots K, K' can sometimes share a common p/q-framed Dehn surgery. A folk conjecture held that for a fixed pair of knots, this can occur for at most one value of p/q. We disprove this conjecture by constructing pairs of distinct…
This paper formulates a generalization of our work on quantum knots to explain how to make quantum versions of algebraic, combinatorial and topological structures. We include a description of previous work on the construction of Hilbert…
Knot, link, and tangle theory is crucial in both mathematical theory and practical application, including quantum physics, molecular biology, and structural chemistry. Unlike knots and links, tangles impose more relaxed constraints,…
The untwisting number of a knot K is the minimum number of null-homologous twists required to convert K to the unknot. Such a twist can be viewed as a generalization of a crossing change, since a classical crossing change can be effected by…
We construct an infinite collection of knots with the property that any knot in this family has $n$-string essential tangle decompositions for arbitrarily high $n$.
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 $K, K'$ be ribbon knottings of $n$-spheres with $1$-handles in $S^{n+2}$, $n\geq 2$. We show that if the knot quandles of these knots are isomorphic, then the ribbon knottings are stably equivalent, in the sense of Nakanishi and…
A knot in a thickened surface $K$ is a smooth embedding $K:S^1 \rightarrow \Sigma \times [0,1]$, where $\Sigma$ is a closed, connected, orientable surface. There is a bijective correspondence between knots in $S^2 \times [0,1]$ and knots in…
The classical Thistlethwaite theorem for links can be phrased as asserting that the Kauffman bracket of a link can be obtained from an evaluation of the Bollob\'as-Riordan polynomial of a ribbon graph associated to one of the link's…
The knot Floer complex and the concordance invariant $\varepsilon$ can be used to define a filtration on the smooth concordance group. We exhibit an ordered subset of this filtration that is isomorphic to $\mathbb{N} \times \mathbb{N}$ and…
We take a close look at a classical magic trick performed with a string, where a trivial knot is seemingly isotoped into a trefoil, and generalize it to a family of magic tricks for transforming the unknot into other knots. We encode such a…
A knot K is called n-adjacent to another knot K', if K admits a projection containing n generalized crossings such that changing any 0 < m \leq n of them yields a projection of K'. We apply techniques from the theory of sutured 3-manifolds,…
We present multi-component knitted resistive sensors for tracking tensile force. The knits were fabricated using a Twill structure, which is a simple pattern featuring anisotropic elastic behavior, providing high stability along…
We point out that recent constructions of inequivalent smooth structures yield a manufacturing procedure of infinite sets of pairwise smoothly non-isotopic nullhomologous 2-tori and spheres inside a myriad of 4-manifolds. The corresponding…