Related papers: Obstructions to trivializing a knot

Families of alternating knots (links) and tangles are studied using as building block the conway defined as the twisting of two strands. The regular representation of knots assumes the projection has the minimal number of overpassings, and…

In the present paper we give a new method for converting virtual knots and links to virtual braids. Indeed the braiding method given in this paper is quite general, and applies to all the categories in which braiding can be accomplished. We…

This paper is concerned with detecting when a closed braid and its axis are 'mutually braided' in the sense of Rudolph. It deals with closed braids which are fibred links, the simplest case being closed braids which present the unknot. The…

This work identifies a class of moves on knots which translate to $m$-equivalences of the associated $p$-fold branched cyclic covers, for a fixed $m$ and any $p$ (with respect to the Goussarov-Habiro filtration.) These moves are applied to…

Noting that cycle diagrams of permutations visually resemble grid diagrams used to depict knots and links in topology, we consider the knot (or link) obtained from the cycle diagram of a permutation. We show that the permutations which…

In the 1920's Artin defined the braid group in an attempt to understand knots in a more algebraic setting. A braid is a certain arrangement of strings in three-dimensional space. It is a celebrated theorem of Alexander that every knot is…

Given a knot, we develop methods for finding the braid representative that minimizes the number of simple walks. Such braids lead to an efficient method for computing the colored Jones polynomial of $K$, following an approach developed by…

After defining reduced minimum braid word and criteria for a braid family representative, different braid family representatives are derived, and a correspondence between them and families of knots and links given in Conway notation is…

In this paper we survey some work on representations of $B_n$ given by the induced action on a homology module of some space. One of these, called the Lawrence-Krammer representation, recently came to prominence when it was shown to be…

We study a certain type of braid closure which resembles the plat closure but has certain advantages; for example, it maps pure braids to knots. The main results of this note are a Markov-type theorem and a description of how Vassiliev…

We give a classification of irreducible metabelian representations from a knot group into SL(n,C) and GL(n,C). If the homology of the n-fold branched cover of the knot is finite, we show that every irreducible metabelian SL(n,C)…

Any solution to the Yang-Baxter equation yields a family of representations of braid groups. Under certain conditions, identified by Turaev, the appropriately normalized trace of these representations yields a link invariant. Any…

The main result of this paper is a negative answer to the question: are all transversal knot types transversally simple? An explicit infinite family of examples is given of closed 3-braids that define transversal knot types that are not…

For groups of a topological origin, such as braid groups and mapping class groups, an important source of interesting and highly non-trivial representations is given by their actions on the twisted homology of associated spaces; these are…

In this note, we prove a lower bound for the positive kinkiness of a closed braid which we then use to derive an estimate for the positive kinkiness of a link in terms of its Seifert system. As an application, we show that certain pretzel…

Traditionally, knot theorists have considered projections of knots where there are two strands meeting at every crossing. A multi-crossing is a crossing where more than two strands meet at a single point, such that each strand bisects the…

An extension of the Artin Braid Group with new operators that generate double and triple intersections is considered. The extended Alexander theorem, relating intersecting closed braids and intersecting knots is proved for double and triple…

We study petal diagrams of knots, which provide a method of describing knots in terms of permutations in a symmetric group $S_{2n+1}$. We define two classes of moves on such permutations, called trivial petal additions and crossing…

Tied links and the tied braid monoid were introduced recently by the authors and used to define new invariants for classical links. Here, we give a version purely algebraic-combinatoric of tied links. With this new version we prove that the…

Given a knot or link in the form of plat closure of a braid, we describe an algorithm to obtain a braid representing the same knot or link with the standard closure, and vice-versa. We analyze the three cases of knots and links: in…