Related papers: On the modular Jones polynomial

Given a tame knot K presented in the form of a knot diagram, we show that the problem of determining whether K is knotted is in the complexity class NP, assuming the generalized Riemann hypothesis (GRH). In other words, there exists a…

Unknot recognition is one of the fundamental questions in low dimensional topology. In this work, we show that this problem can be encoded as a validity problem in the existential fragment of the first-order theory of real closed fields.…

This paper is a memory of the work and influence of Vaughan Jones. It is an exposition of the remarkable breakthroughs in knot theory and low dimensional topology that were catalyzed by his work. The paper recalls the inception of the Jones…

To a knot in 3-space, one can associate a sequence of Laurent polynomials, whose $n$th term is the $n$th colored Jones polynomial. The paper is concerned with the asymptotic behavior of the value of the $n$th colored Jones polynomial at…

We show that for any nontrivial knot $K$ and any natural number $n$ there is a diagram $D$ of $K$ such that the unknotting number of $D$ is greater than or equal to $n$. It is well known that twice the unknotting number of $K$ is less than…

We provide a new bound on the maximum degree of the Jones polynomial of a positive link with second Jones coefficient equal to $\pm 1$ or $\pm 2$. This builds upon the result of our previous work, in which we found such a bound for positive…

We compute the unknotting number of two infinite families of pretzel knots, $P(3,1,\dots,1,b)$ (with $b$ positive and odd and an odd number of 1s) and $P(3,3,3c)$ (with $c$ positive and odd). To do this, we extend a technique of Owens using…

For a knot $K$ in $S^3$, the $sl_2$-colored Jones function $J_K(n)$ is a sequence of Laurent polynomials in the variable $t$, which is known to satisfy non-trivial linear recurrence relations. The operator corresponding to the minimal…

The motivation for this work was to construct a nontrivial knot with trivial Jones polynomial. Although that open problem has not yielded, the methods are useful for other problems in the theory of knot polynomials. The subject of the…

In this paper we introduce the notion of an unknotting index for virtual knots. We give some examples of computation by using writhe invariants, and discuss a relationship between the unknotting index and the virtual knot module. In…

A problem in zero-sum theory is to determine all pairs $(k,n)$ for which every minimal zero-sum sequence of length $k$ modulo $n$ has index $1$. While all other cases have been solved more than a decade ago, the case when $k$ equals $4$ and…

We study the asymptotic behavior of the $N$-dimensional colored Jones polynomial of the figure-eight knot evaluated at $\exp\bigl((u+2p\pi\i)/N\bigr)$, where $u$ is a small real number and $p$ is a positive integer. We show that it is…

It is known that the minimal degree of the Jones polynomial of a positive knot is equal to its genus, and the minimal coefficient is 1. We extend this result to almost positive links and partly identify the 3 following coefficients for…

We use Gale duality for polynomial complete intersections and adapt the proof of the fewnomial bound for positive solutions to obtain the bound (e^4+3) 2^(k choose 2) n^k/4 for the number of non-zero real solutions to a system of n…

The A-polynomial of a knot is defined in terms of SL(2,C) representations of the knot group, and encodes information about essential surfaces in the knot complement. In 2005, Dunfield-Garoufalidis and Boyer-Zhang proved that it detects the…

Let $N=2n^2-1$ or $N=n^2+n-1$, for any $n\ge 2$. Let $M=\frac{N-1}{2}$. We construct families of prime knots with Jones polynomials $(-1)^M\sum_{k=-M}^{M} (-1)^kt^k$. Such polynomials have Mahler measure equal to $1$. If $N$ is prime, these…

In this paper, we propose and discuss implications of a general conjecture that there is a canonical action of a rank 1 double affine Hecke algebra on the Kauffman bracket skein module of the complement of a knot $K \subset S^3$. We prove…

For a closed n-braid L with a full positive twist and with k negative crossings, 0\leq k \leq n, we determine the first n-k+1 terms of the Jones polynomial V_L(t). We show that V_L(t) satisfies a braid index constraint, which is a gap of…

The group of a nontrivial knot admits a finite permutation representation such that the corresponding twisted Alexander polynomial is not a unit.

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…