Lomonaco and Kauffman introduced a knot mosaic system to give a precise and workable definition of a quantum knot system, the states of which are called quantum knots. This paper is inspired by an open question about the knot mosaic enumeration suggested by them. A knot $n$--mosaic is an $n \times n$ array of 11 mosaic tiles representing a knot or a link diagram by adjoining properly that is called suitably connected. The total number of knot $n$--mosaics is denoted by $D_n$ which is known to grow in a quadratic exponential rate. In this paper, we show the existence of the knot mosaic constant $δ= \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} D_n^{\ \frac{1}{n^2}}$ and prove that $$4 \leq δ\leq \frac{5+ \sqrt{13}}{2} \ (\approx 4.303).$$
In 2008, Kauffman and Lomonaco introduce the concepts of a knot mosaic and the mosaic number of a knot or link, the smallest integer $n$ such that a knot or link can be represented on an $n$-mosaic. In arXiv:1702.06462, the authors explore space-efficient knot mosaics and the tile number of a knot or link, the smallest number of non-blank tiles necessary to depict the knot or link on a mosaic. They determine bounds for the tile number in terms of the mosaic number. In this paper, we focus specifically on prime knots with mosaic number 6. We determine a complete list of these knots, provide a m…
Knot mosaic theory was introduced by Lomonaco and Kauffman in the paper on `Quantum knots and mosaics' to give a precise and workable definition of quantum knots, intended to represent an actual physical quantum system. A knot (m,n)-mosaic is an $m \! \times \! n$ matrix whose entries are eleven mosaic tiles, representing a knot or a link by adjoining properly. In this paper we introduce two variants of knot mosaics: period knot mosaics and toroidal knot mosaics, which are common features in physics and mathematics. We present an algorithm producing the exact enumeration of period knot (m,n)-m…
Mosaic diagrams for knots were first introduced in 2008 by Lomanoco and Kauffman for the purpose of building a quantum knot system. Since then, many others have explored the structure of these knot mosaic diagrams, as they are interesting objects of study in their own right. Knot mosaics have been generalized by Garduño to virtual knots, by including an additional tile type to represent virtual crossings. There is another interpretation of virtual knots, however, as knot diagrams on surfaces, which inspires this work. By viewing classical mosaic diagrams as $4n$-gons and gluing edges of these …
Knot mosaics are used to model physical quantum states. The mosaic number of a knot is the smallest integer $m$ such that the knot can be represented as a knot $m$-mosaic. In this paper we establish an upper bound for the crossing number of a knot in terms of the mosaic number. Given an $m$-mosaic and any knot $K$ that is represented on the mosaic, its crossing number $c$ is bounded above by $(m - 2)^{2} - 2$ if $m$ is odd, and $(m - 2)^{2} - (m - 3)$ if $m$ is even.
The concepts of tile number and space-efficiency for knot mosaics were first explored by Heap and Knowles (arXiv:1702.06462), where they determined the possible tile numbers and space-efficient layouts for every prime knot with mosaic number 6 or less. In this paper, we extend those results to prime knots with mosaic number 7.
In 2008, Lomonaco and Kauffman introduced a knot mosaic system to define a quantum knot system. A quantum knot is used to describe a physical quantum system such as the topology or status of vortexing that occurs on a small scale can not see. Kuriya and Shehab proved that knot mosaic type is a complete invariant of tame knots. In this article, we consider the mosaic number of a knot which is a natural and fundamental knot invariant defined in the knot mosaic system. We determine the mosaic number for all eight-crossing or fewer prime knots. This work is written at an introductory level to enco…
Lomonaco and Kauffman developed knot mosaics to give a definition of a quantum knot system. This definition is intended to represent an actual physical quantum system. A knot $n$-mosaic is an $n \times n$ matrix of 11 kinds of specific mosaic tiles representing a knot or a link. The mosaic number $m(K)$ of a knot $K$ is the smallest integer $n$ for which $K$ is representable as a knot $n$-mosaic. In this paper we establish an upper bound on the mosaic number of a knot or a link $K$ in terms of the crossing number $c(K)$. Let $K$ be a nontrivial knot or a non-split link except the Hopf link. Th…
In this paper we introduce the concept of a space-efficient knot mosaic. That is, we seek to determine how to create knot mosaics using the least number of non-blank tiles necessary to depict the knot. This least number is called the tile number of the knot. We determine strict bounds for the tile number of a knot in terms of the mosaic number of the knot. In particular, if $t$ is the tile number of a prime knot with mosaic number $m$, then $5m-8 \leq t \leq m^2-4$ if $m$ is even and $5m-8 \leq t \leq m^2-8$ if $m$ is odd. We also determine the tile number of several knots and provide space-ef…
Lomonaco and Kauffman introduced knot mosaic system to give a definition of quantum knot system. This definition is intended to represent an actual physical quantum system. A knot $(m,n)$-mosaic is an $m \times n$ matrix of mosaic tiles which are $T_0$ through $T_{10}$ depicted as below, representing a knot or a link by adjoining properly that is called suitably connected. An interesting question in studying mosaic theory is how many knot $(m,n)$-mosaics are there. $D_{m,n}$ denotes the total number of all knot $(m,n)$-mosaics. This counting is very important because the total number of knot m…
Inspired by the paper on quantum knots and knot mosaics [23] and grid diagrams (or arc presentations), used extensively in the computations of Heegaard-Floer knot homology [2,3,7,24], we construct the more concise representation of knot mosaics and grid diagrams via mirror-curves. Tame knot theory is equivalent to knot mosaics [23], mirror-curves, and grid diagrams [3,7,22,24]. Hence, we introduce codes for mirror-curves treated as knot or link diagrams placed in rectangular square grids, suitable for software implementation. We provide tables of minimal mirror-curve codes for knots and links …
Lomonaco and Kauffman introduced a knot mosaic system to give a definition of a quantum knot system which can be viewed as a blueprint for the construction of an actual physical quantum system. A knot $n$-mosaic is an $n \times n$ matrix of 11 kinds of specific mosaic tiles representing a knot or a link by adjoining properly that is called suitably connected. $D_n$ denotes the total number of all knot $n$-mosaics. Already known is that $D_1=1$, $D_2=2$, and $D_3=22$. In this paper we establish the lower and upper bounds on $D_n$ $$\frac{2}{275}(9 \cdot 6^{n-2} + 1)^2 \cdot 2^{(n-3)^2} \ \leq \…
Lomonaco and Kauffman developed a knot mosaic system to introduce a precise and workable definition of a quantum knot system. This definition is intended to represent an actual physical quantum system. A knot (m,n)-mosaic is an $m \times n$ matrix of mosaic tiles ($T_0$ through $T_{10}$ depicted in the introduction) representing a knot or a link by adjoining properly that is called suitably connected. $D^{(m,n)}$ is the total number of all knot (m,n)-mosaics. This value indicates the dimension of the Hilbert space of these quantum knot system. $D^{(m,n)}$ is already found for $m,n \leq 6$ by t…
Since the Jones polynomial was discovered, the connection between knot theory and quantum physics has been of great interest. Lomonaco and Kauffman introduced the knot mosaic system to give a definition of the quantum knot system that is intended to represent an actual physical quantum system. Recently the authors developed an algorithm producing the exact enumeration of knot mosaics, which uses a recursion formula of state matrices. As a sequel to this research program, we similarly define the (embedded) graph mosaic system by using sixteen graph mosaic tiles, representing graph diagrams with…
In this paper, we give a precise and workable definition of a quantum knot system, the states of which are called quantum knots. This definition can be viewed as a blueprint for the construction of an actual physical quantum system. Moreover, this definition of a quantum knot system is intended to represent the "quantum embodiment" of a closed knotted physical piece of rope. A quantum knot, as a state of this system, represents the state of such a knotted closed piece of rope, i.e., the particular spatial configuration of the knot tied in the rope. Associated with a quantum knot system is a gr…
In this paper, we work to construct mosaic representations of knots on the torus, rather than in the plane. This consists of a particular choice of the ambient group, as well as different definitions of contiguous and suitably connected. We present conditions under which mosaic numbers might decrease by this projection, and present a tool to measure this reduction. We show that the order of edge identification in construction of the torus sometimes yields different resultant knots from a given mosaic when reversed. Additionally, in the Appendix we give the catalog of all 2 by 2 torus mosaics.
Samuel J. Lomonaco Jr and Louis H. Kauffman conjectured that tame knot theory and knot mosaic theory are equivalent. We give a proof of the Lomonaco-Kauffman conjecture.
In a previous paper the authors defined the growth rate of the tunnel number of knots, an invariant that measures that asymptotic behavior of the tunnel number under connected sum. In this paper we calculate the growth rate of the tunnel number of m-small knots in terms of their bridge indices.
Given a knot $K$ in a closed orientable manifold $M$ we define the growth rate of the tunnel number of $K$ to be $gr_t(K) = \limsup_{n \to \infty} \frac{t(nK) - n t(K)}{n-1}$. As our main result we prove that the Heegaard genus of $M$ is strictly less than the Heegaard genus of the knot exterior if and only if the growth rate is less than 1. In particular this shows that a non-trivial knot in $S^3$ is never asymptotically super additive. The main result gives conditions that imply falsehood of Morimoto's Conjecture.
In a previous paper Kobayashi and Rieck defined the growth rate of the tunnel number of a knot $K$, a knot invariant that measures the asymptotic behavior of the tunnel number under iterated connected sum of $K$. We denote the growth rate by $\mbox{gr}_t(K)$. In this paper we construct, for any $ε> 0$, a hyperbolic knots $K \subset S^{3}$ for which $1 - ε< \mbox{gr}_t(K) < 1$. This is the first proof that the spectrum of the growth rate of the tunnel number is infinite.
The theory of tunnel number 1 knots detailed in our previous paper, The tree of knot tunnels, provides a non-negative integer invariant called the depth of the tunnel. We give various results related to the depth invariant. Noting that it equals the minimum number of Goda-Scharlemann-Thompson tunnel moves needed to construct the tunnel, we calculate the number of distinct minimal sequences of tunnel moves that can produce a given tunnel. Next, we give a recursion that tells the minimum bridge number of a knot having a tunnel of depth D. The rate of growth of this value improves the known estim…
In this paper we show how to place Michael Berry's discovery of knotted zeros in the quantum states of hydrogen in the context of general knot theory and in the context of our formulations for quantum knots. Berry gave a time independent wave function for hydrogen, as a map from three space to the complex plane and such that the inverse image of zero in the complex plane contains a knotted curve in three space. We show that for knots in three space this is a generic situation in that every smooth knot K in three space has a smooth classifying map f from three space to the complex plane such th…
Lehmer's question is equivalent to one about generalized growth rates of Lefschetz numbers of iterated pseudo-Anosov surface homeomorphisms. One need consider only homeomorphisms that arise as monodromies of fibered knots in lens spaces L(n,1), n>0. Lehmer's question for Perron polynomials is equivalent to one about generalized growth rates of words under injective free group endomorphisms.
The work of Jørgensen and Thurston shows that there is a finite number N(v) of orientable hyperbolic 3-manifolds with any given volume v. In this paper, we construct examples showing that the number of hyperbolic knot complements with a given volume v can grow at least factorially fast with v. A similar statement holds for closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds, obtained via Dehn surgery. Furthermore, we give explicit estimates for lower bounds of N(v) in terms of v for these examples. These results improve upon the work of Hodgson and Masai, which describes examples that grow exponentially fast with v…
We show that (under mild assumptions) the generating function of log homology torsion of a knot exterior has a meromorphic continuation to the entire complex plane. As corollaries, this gives new proofs of (a) the Silver-Williams asymptotic, (b) Fried's theorem on reconstructing the Alexander polynomial (c) Gordon's theorem on periodic homology. Our results generalize to other rank 1 growth phenomena, e.g. Reidemeister-Franz torsion growth for higher-dimensional knots. We also analyze the exceptional cases where the meromorphic continuation does not exist.
In the first part of this paper, we determine the asymptotic subgroup growth of the fundamental group of a torus knot complement. In the second part, we use this to study random finite degree covers of torus knot complements. We determine their Benjamini-Schramm limit and the linear growth rate of the Betti numbers of these covers. All these results generalise to a larger class of lattices in $\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{R})\times \mathbb{R}$. As a by-product of our proofs, we obtain analogous limit theorems for high degree random covers of non-uniform Fuchsian lattices with torsion.
In this paper we develop an asymptotic analysis for formal and actual solutions of q-difference equations, under a regularity assumption. In particular, evaluations of regular solutions of regular q-difference equations have an exponential growth rate which can be computed from the q-difference equation. The motivation for the paper comes from the Hyperbolic Volume Conjecture, which states that a specific evaluation of the colored Jones function has an exponential growth rate, which is proportional to the volume of the knot complement. The connection of the Hyperbolic Volume Conjecture with th…
The volume conjecture states that for a hyperbolic knot K in the three-sphere S^3 the asymptotic growth of the colored Jones polynomial of K is governed by the hyperbolic volume of the knot complement S^3\K. The conjecture relates two topological invariants, one combinatorial and one geometric, in a very nonobvious, nontrivial manner. The goal of the present lectures is to review the original statement of the volume conjecture and its recent extensions and generalizations, and to show how, in the most general context, the conjecture can be understood in terms of topological quantum field theor…
