Related papers: Random knotting in very long off-lattice self-avoi…
Inspired by how certain proteins "sense" knots and entanglements in DNA molecules, here we ask if there exist local geometric features that may be used as a read-out of the underlying topology of generic polymers. We perform molecular…
The ropelength of a knot is the minimum length required to tie it. Computational upper bounds have previously been computed for every prime knot with up to 11 crossings. Here, we present ropelength measurements for the 2176 knots with 12…
Spontaneous formation of knots in long polymers at equilibrium is inevitable but becomes rare in sufficiently short chains. Here, we show that knotting and knot complexity increase by orders of magnitude in diblock polymers with a fraction…
We develop off-lattice simulations of semiflexible polymer chains subjected to applied mechanical forces using Markov Chain Monte Carlo. Our approach models the polymer as a chain of fixed-length bonds, with configurations updated through…
A knot theory for two-dimensional square lattice is proposed, which sheds light on design of new two-dimensional material with high topological numbers. We consider a two-band model, focusing on the Hall conductance {\sigma}xy = e^2/hbar*P,…
Computing polynomial invariants for knots and links using braid representations relies heavily on finding the trace of Hecke algebra elements. There is no easy method known for computing the trace and hence it becomes difficult to compute…
A polynomial lemniscate is a curve in the complex plane defined by $\{z \in \mathbb{C}:|p(z)|=t\}$. Erd\"os, Herzog, and Piranian posed the extremal problem of determining the maximum length of a lemniscate $\Lambda=\{ z \in…
This paper defines a new invariant of virtual knots and links that we call the extended bracket polynomial, and denote by <<K>> for a virtual knot or link K. This invariant is a state summation over bracket states of the oriented diagram…
We study the band-unknotting number $u_{nb}(K)$ of a knot $K$, and how it behaves with respect to connect sums. We show that this sub-additive function is not additive under connected sums, by finding infinitely many examples of knots $K_1,…
Three-dimensional three-colour percolation on a lattice made of tetrahedra is a direct generalization of two-dimensional two-colour percolation on the triangular lattice. The interfaces between one-colour clusters are made of bicolour…
The pivot algorithm is the most efficient known method for sampling polymer configurations for self-avoiding walks and related models. Here we introduce two recent improvements to an efficient binary tree implementation of the pivot…
In a recent work of I. Dynnikov and M. Prasolov a new method of comparing Legendrian knots with nontrivial symmetry group is proposed. Using this method we confirm conjectures of Ng and Chongchitmate about Legendrian knots in topological…
We investigate the asymptotics of the total number of simple $4a+1$-knots with Alexander polynomial of the form $mt^2 +(1-2m) t + m$ for some $m \in [-X, X]$. Using Kearton and Levine's classification of simple knots, we give equivalent…
The space writhe of a knot is a property of its three-dimensional embedding that contains information about its underlying topology, but the correspondence between space writhe and other topological invariants is not fully understood. We…
The maximum length of the shortest path from a leaf to the root of a skein tree for knots and links gives a measure of the complexity of computing link polynomials by the skein relation (the Jones polynomial, the Alexander-Conway…
The concordance genus of a knot K is the minimum three-genus among all knots concordant to K. For prime knots of 10 or fewer crossings there have been three knots for which the concordance genus was unknown. Those three cases are now…
We prove a $pre$-$asymptotic$ bound on the total variation distance between the uniform distribution over two types of undirected graphs with $n$ nodes. One distribution places a prescribed number of $k_T$ triangles and $k_S$ edges not…
We introduce natural language processing into the study of knot theory, as made natural by the braid word representation of knots. We study the UNKNOT problem of determining whether or not a given knot is the unknot. After describing an…
We apply Bayesian optimization and reinforcement learning to a problem in topology: the question of when a knot bounds a ribbon disk. This question is relevant in an approach to disproving the four-dimensional smooth Poincar\'e conjecture;…
Besides mathematical interest, knots and knot theory have important applications in physics, chemistry, and biology. Stasiak and colleagues devised a constructive method for a knot "energy" using a Metropolis Monte Carlo algorithm to…