Knottedness is in NP, modulo GRH
Geometric Topology
2019-09-16 v2 Computational Complexity
Abstract
Given a tame knot K presented in the form of a knot diagram, we show that the problem of determining whether K is knotted is in the complexity class NP, assuming the generalized Riemann hypothesis (GRH). In other words, there exists a polynomial-length certificate that can be verified in polynomial time to prove that K is non-trivial. GRH is not needed to believe the certificate, but only to find a short certificate. This result complements the result of Hass, Lagarias, and Pippenger that unknottedness is in NP. Our proof is a corollary of major results of others in algebraic geometry and geometric topology.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1112.0845,
title = {Knottedness is in NP, modulo GRH},
author = {Greg Kuperberg},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1112.0845},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
7 pages; minor update