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Related papers: A new algorithm for recognizing the unknot

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Classifying the topology of closed curves is a central problem in low dimensional topology with applications beyond mathematics spanning protein folding, polymer physics and even magnetohydrodynamics. The central problem is how to determine…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-20 Djordje Mihajlovic , Davide Michieletto

We examine the structure and dimensionality of the Jones polynomial using manifold learning techniques. Our data set consists of more than 10 million knots up to 17 crossings and two other special families up to 2001 crossings. We introduce…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2019-12-24 Jesse S F Levitt , Mustafa Hajij , Radmila Sazdanovic

We use Heegaard Floer homology to obtain bounds on unknotting numbers. This is a generalisation of Ozsvath and Szabo's obstruction to unknotting number one. We determine the unknotting numbers of 9_10, 9_13, 9_35, 9_38, 10_53, 10_101 and…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2007-05-23 Brendan Owens

We initiate the study of combinatorial algorithms for Triangle Detection in $H$-free graphs. The goal is to decide if a graph that forbids a fixed pattern $H$ as a subgraph contains a triangle, using only "combinatorial" methods that…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2025-11-24 Amir Abboud , Ron Safier , Nathan Wallheimer

Let $u(K)$ and $g(K)$ denote the unknotting number and the genus of a knot $K$, respectively. For a 3-braid knot $K$, we show that $u(K)\le g(K)$ holds, and that if $u(K)=g(K)$ then $K$ is either a 2-braid knot, a connected sum of two…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2014-01-28 Eon-Kyung Lee , Sang-Jin Lee

We consider classes of fundamental groups of complements of various kinds of codimension 2 embeddings and show that, in general, the problem of deciding whether or not a group in one class belongs to a smaller class is algorithmically…

Group Theory · Mathematics 2009-08-28 F. Gonzalez-Acuna , C. McA. Gordon , J. Simon

The notion of a braided chord diagram is introduced and studied. An equivalence relation is given which identifies all braidings of a fixed chord diagram. It is shown that finite-type invariants are stratified by braid index for knots which…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2007-05-23 Joan S. Birman , Rolland Trapp

We show that there are links whose individual components are concordant to the unknot, but which are not concordant to any link with unknotted components. We give examples in the topological category, and examples in the smooth category…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2014-10-01 Jae Choon Cha , Daniel Ruberman

This paper presents the novel `uniqueness tree' algorithm, as one possible method for determining whether two finite, undirected graphs are isomorphic. We prove that the algorithm has polynomial time complexity in the worst case, and that…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2016-06-22 Jonathan Gorard

The authors conjectured previously that a knot is nonfibered if and only if its infinite cyclic cover has uncountably many finite covers. We prove the conjecture for a class of knots that includes all knots of genus 1, using techniques from…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2007-07-26 Daniel S. Silver , Susan G. Williams

We consider the problem of finding an edge in a hidden undirected graph $G = (V, E)$ with $n$ vertices, in a model where we only allowed queries that ask whether or not a subset of vertices contains an edge. We study the non-adaptive model…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2022-07-07 Ron Kupfer , Noam Nisan

We consider systems of recursively defined combinatorial structures. We give algorithms checking that these systems are well founded, computing generating series and providing numerical values. Our framework is an articulation of the…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2012-12-18 Carine Pivoteau , Bruno Salvy , Michele Soria

We study the problem of finding neck-like features on a surface. Applications for such cuts include robotics, mesh segmentation, and algorithmic applications. We provide a new definition for a surface bottleneck -- informally, it is the…

Computational Geometry · Computer Science 2026-01-14 Sam Ruggerio , Sariel Har-Peled

We study the structure of the set of all possible affine hyperplane sections of a convex polytope. We present two different cell decompositions of this set, induced by hyperplane arrangements. Using our decomposition, we bound the number of…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-06-02 Marie-Charlotte Brandenburg , Jesús A. De Loera , Chiara Meroni

We give a rigorous development of the construction of new braided fusion categories from a given category known as zesting. This method has been used in the past to provide categorifications of new fusion rule algebras, modular data, and…

Quantum Algebra · Mathematics 2025-04-23 Colleen Delaney , César Galindo , Julia Plavnik , Eric C. Rowell , Qing Zhang

Many applications, including rank aggregation, crowd-labeling, and graphon estimation, can be modeled in terms of a bivariate isotonic matrix with unknown permutations acting on its rows and/or columns. We consider the problem of estimating…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2019-10-29 Cheng Mao , Ashwin Pananjady , Martin J. Wainwright

A knotted ribbon is one of physical aspect of a knot. A folded ribbon knot is a depiction of a knot obtained by folding a long and thin rectangular strip to become flat. The ribbonlength of a knot type can be defined as the minimum length…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2026-02-25 Hyoungjun Kim , Sungjong No , Hyungkee Yoo

We prove complex contraction for zero-free regions of counting weighted set cover problem in which an element can appear in an unbounded number of sets, thus obtaining fully polynomial-time approximation schemes(FPTAS) via Barvinok's…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2022-01-03 Liang Li , Guangzeng Xie

We use grid diagrams to give a combinatorial algorithm for computing the knot Floer homology of the pullback of a knot K in its m-fold cyclic branched cover Sigma^m(K), and we give computations when m=2 for over fifty three-bridge knots…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2016-01-20 Adam Simon Levine

A companion paper to "On knot Floer homology in branched double covers" applied to braided branched loci. We reprove the main result of that paper concerning alternating branched loci when projected to an annulus, without using Khovanov…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2007-06-07 Lawrence P. Roberts