Related papers: Short Ropes and Long Knots

In this paper we propose a new, more appropriate definition of regular and indeterminate strings. A regular string is one that is "isomorphic" to a string whose entries all consist of a single letter, but which nevertheless may itself…

The lattice stick number of a knot type is defined to be the minimal number of straight line segments required to construct a polygon presentation of the knot type in the cubic lattice. In this paper, we mathematically prove that the…

A graph is chordal if it does not contain an induced cycle of length greater than three. We determine the minimum size of a chordal graph with given order and minimum degree. In doing so, we have discovered interesting properties of chordal…

Let K be a tame knot with irreducible exterior M(K) in a closed, connected, orientable 3--manifold Sigma such that pi_1(Sigma) is cyclic. If infinity is not a strict boundary slope, then the diameter of the set of strict boundary slopes of…

A quadrisecant line is one which intersects a curve in at least four points, while an essential secant captures something about the knottedness of a knot. This survey article gives a brief history of these ideas, and shows how they may be…

In this paper, we determine geometric information on slope lengths of a large class of knots in the 3-sphere, based only on diagrammatical properties of the knots. In particular, we show such knots have meridian length strictly less than 4,…

Fix a straight line L in Euclidean 3-space and consider the fibration of the complement of L by half-planes. A generic knot K in the complement of L has neither fiber quadrisecants nor fiber extreme secants such that K touches the…

If K is a rationally null-homologous knot in a 3-manifold M, the rational genus of K is the infimum of -\chi(S)/2p over all embedded orientable surfaces S in the complement of K whose boundary wraps p times around K for some p (hereafter: S…

A numerical semigroup is said to be ordinary if it has all its gaps in a row. Indeed, it contains zero and all integers from a given positive one. One can define a simple operation on a non-ordinary semigroup, which we call here the…

To a closed braid in a solid torus we associate a trace graph in a thickened torus in such a way that closed braids are isotopic if and only if their trace graphs can be related by trihedral and tetraherdal moves. For closed braids with a…

Motivated by intuitive properties of physical quantities, the notion of a non-anomalous semigroup is formulated. These are totally ordered semigroups where there are no `infinitesimally close' elements. The real numbers are then defined as…

An unrefinable chain of a finite group $G$ is a chain of subgroups $G = G_0 > G_1 > \cdots > G_t = 1$, where each $G_i$ is a maximal subgroup of $G_{i-1}$. The length (respectively, depth) of $G$ is the maximal (respectively, minimal)…

We define a plane curve to be threadable if it can rigidly pass through a point-hole in a line L without otherwise touching L. Threadable curves are in a sense generalizations of monotone curves. We have two main results. The first is a…

The trunk of a knot in $S^3$, defined by Makoto Ozawa, is a measure of geometric complexity similar to the bridge number or width of a knot. We prove that for any two knots $K_1$ and $K_2$, we have $tr(K_1 \# K_2) =…

The inclusion of the space of all knots of a prescribed writhe in a particular isotopy class into the space of all knots in that isotopy class is a weak homotopy equivalence.

A wired tree is a graph obtained from a tree by collapsing the leaves to a single vertex. We describe a pair of short exact sequences relating the sandpile group of a wired tree to the sandpile groups of its principal subtrees. In the case…

Using the cubic honeycomb (cubic tessellation) of Euclidean 3-space, we define a quantum system whose states, called quantum knots, represent a closed knotted piece of rope, i.e., represent the particular spatial configuration of a knot…

J. Hempel's definition of the distance of a Heegaard surface generalizes to a complexity for a knot which is in bridge position with respect to a Heegaard surface. Our main result is that the distance of a knot in bridge position is bounded…

In thermally fluctuating long linear polymeric chain in solution, the ends come from time to time into a direct contact or a close vicinity of each other. At such an instance, the chain can be regarded as a closed one and thus will form a…

We study 3-braid knots of finite smooth concordance order. A corollary of our main result is that a chiral 3-braid knot of finite concordance order is ribbon.