Related papers: Integration and conjugacy in knot theory
These introductory lectures show how to define finite type invariants of links and 3-manifolds by counting graph configurations in 3-manifolds, following ideas of Witten and Kontsevich. The linking number is the simplest finite type…
We consider countable linear orders and study the quasi-order of convex embeddability and its induced equivalence relation. We obtain both combinatorial and descriptive set-theoretic results, and further extend our research to the case of…
We consider knot theories possessing a {\em parity}: each crossing is decreed {\em odd} or {\em even} according to some universal rule. If this rule satisfies some simple axioms concerning the behaviour under Reidemeister moves, this leads…
We introduce the Insertion Chain Complex, a higher-dimensional extension of insertion graphs, as a new framework for analyzing finite sets of words. We study its topological and combinatorial properties, in particular its homology groups,…
We summarize several results about non-simplicity, solvability and normal structure of finite groups related to the number of conjugacy classes appearing in the product or the power of conjugacy classes. We also collect some problems that…
Knots naturally appear in continuous dynamical systems as flow periodic trajectories. However, discrete dynamical systems are also closely connected with the theory of knots and links. For example, for Pixton diffeomorphisms, the…
We initiate the study of classical knots through the homotopy class of the n-th evaluation map of the knot, which is the induced map on the compactified n-point configuration space. Sending a knot to its n-th evaluation map realizes the…
In this paper we introduce a new invariant of virtual knots and links that is non-trivial for infinitely many virtuals, but is trivial on classical knots and links. The invariant is initially be expressed in terms of a relative of the…
The problem of classification of Legendrian knots (links) up to isotopy in the class of Legendrian embeddings (Legendrian isotopy) naturally leads to the following two subproblems. The first of them is: which combinations of the three…
Recent progress in string theory has led to a reformulation of quantum-group polynomial invariants for knots and links into new polynomial invariants whose coefficients can be understood in topological terms. We describe in detail how to…
This paper gives new and elementary combinatorial topological proofs of the classification of unoriented and oriented rational knots and links. These proofs are based on the known classification of alternating knots through flyping, and the…
The conjugacy of split Cartan subalgebras in the finite dimensional simple case (Chevalley) and in the symmetrizable Kac-Moody case (Peterson-Kac) are fundamental results of the theory of Lie algebras. Among the Kac-Moody Lie algebras the…
We develop a word mechanism applied in knot and link diagrams for the illustration of a diagrammatic property. We also give a necessary condition for determining incompressible and pairwise incompressible surfaces, that are embedded in knot…
Milnor's $\bar{\mu}$-invariants of links in the $3$-sphere $S^3$ vanish on any link concordant to a boundary link. In particular, they are trivial on any knot in $S^3$. Here we consider knots in thickened surfaces $\Sigma \times [0,1]$,…
The recent proof by Bigelow and Krammer that the braid groups are linear opens the possibility of applications to the study of knots and links. It was proved by the first author and Menasco that any closed braid representative of the unknot…
We relate the tree part of the Aarhus integral to Milnor's mu-invariants of string-links in homology balls thus generalizing results of Habegger and Masbaum.
The conjugacy problem belongs to algorithmic group theory. It is the following question: given two words x, y over generators of a fixed group G, decide whether x and y are conjugated, i.e., whether there exists some z such that zxz^{-1} =…
Given a class of objects, a pattern theorem is a powerful result describing their structure. We show that alternating knots exhibit a pattern theorem, and use this result to prove a long-standing conjecture that alternating knots grow rare.…
The Andrews-Curtis conjecture claims that every balanced presentation of the trivial group can be reduced to the standard one by a sequence of ``elementary transformations" which are Nielsen transformations augmented by arbitrary…
The present paper is an introduction to a combinatorial theory arising as a natural generalisation of classical and virtual knot theory. There is a way to encode links by a class of `realisable' graphs. When passing to generic graphs with…