We study the variation of the Tait number of a closed space curve according to its different projections. The results are used to compute the writhe of a knot, leading to a closed formula in case of polygonal curves.
We give a new interpretation of the Alexander polynomial $Δ_0$ for virtual knots due to Sawollek and Silver and Williams, and use it to show that, for any virtual knot, $Δ_0$ determines the writhe polynomial of Cheng and Gao (equivalently, Kauffman's affine index polynomial). We also use it to define a second-order writhe polynomial, and give some applications.
The writhe polynomial is a fundamental invariant of an oriented virtual knot. We introduce a kind of local moves for oriented virtual knots called shell moves. The first aim of this paper is to prove that two oriented virtual knots have the same writhe polynomial if and only if they are related by a finite sequence of shell moves. The second aim of this paper is to classify oriented $2$-component virtual links up to shell moves by using several invariants of virtual links.
We introduce and study the writhe of a permutation, a circular variant of the well-known inversion number. This simple permutation statistics has several interpretations, which lead to some interesting properties. For a permutation sampled uniformly at random, we study the asymptotics of the writhe, and obtain a non-Gaussian limit distribution. This work is motivated by the study of random knots. A model for random framed knots is described, which refines the Petaluma model. The distribution of the framing in this model is equivalent to the writhe of random permutations.
It has long been known that the quadratic term in the degree of the colored Jones polynomial of a knot is bounded above in terms of the crossing number of the knot. We show that this bound is sharp if and only if the knot is adequate. As an application of our result we determine the crossing numbers of broad families of non-adequate prime satellite knots. More specifically, we exhibit minimal crossing number diagrams for untwisted Whitehead doubles of zero-writhe adequate knots. This allows us to determine the crossing number of untwisted Whitehead doubles of any amphicheiral adequate knot, in…
We model the typical behavior of knots and links using grid diagrams. Links are ubiquitous in the sciences, and their "normal" or "typical" behavior is of significant importance in understanding situations such as the topological state of DNA or the statistical mechanics of ring polymers. We examine three invariants: the expected size of a random knot; the expected number of components of a random link; and the expected writhe of a random knot. We investigate the first two numerically and produce generating functions which codify the observed patterns: knot size is uniformly distributed and li…
The Slope Conjecture proposed by Garoufalidis asserts that the degree of the colored Jones polynomial determines a boundary slope, and its refinement, the Strong Slope Conjecture proposed by Kalfagianni and Tran asserts that the linear term in the degree determines the topology of an essential surface that satisfies the Slope Conjecture. Under certain hypotheses, we show that Mazur doubles of knots satisfy the Strong Slope Conjecture if the original knot does. Consequently, any knot obtained by a finite sequence of cabling, untwisted w--generalized Whitehead doublings with w > 0, connected sum…
The genus of satellite tunnel number one knots and torti-rational knots is computed using the tools introduced by Floyd and Hatcher. An implementation of an algorithm is given to compute genus and slopes of minimal genus Seifert surfaces for such knots.
A ribbon is, intuitively, a smooth mapping of an annulus $S^1 \times I$ in 3-space having constant width $\varepsilon$. This can be formalized as a triple $(x,\varepsilon, \mathbf{u})$ where $x$ is smooth curve in 3-space and $\mathbf{u}$ is a unit vector field based along $x$. In the 1960s and 1970s, G. Calugareanu, G. H. White, and F. B. Fuller proved relationships between the geometry and topology of thin ribbons, in particular the "Link = Twist + Writhe" theorem that has been applied to help understand properties of double-stranded DNA. Although ribbons of small width have been studied ext…
In this paper we use artificial neural networks to predict and help compute the values of certain knot invariants. In particular, we show that neural networks are able to predict when a knot is quasipositive with a high degree of accuracy. Given a knot with unknown quasipositivity we use these predictions to identify braid representatives that are likely to be quasipositive, which we then subject to further testing to verify. Using these techniques we identify 84 new quasipositive 11 and 12-crossing knots. Furthermore, we show that neural networks are also able to predict and help compute the …
Kjuchukova's $Ξ_p$ invariant gives a ribbon obstruction for Fox $p$-colored knots. The invariant is derived from dihedral branched covers of 4-manifolds, and is needed to calculate the signatures of these covers, when singularities on the branching sets are present. In this note, we give an algorithm for evaluating $Ξ_p$ from a colored knot diagram, and compute a couple of examples.
By using grid homology theory, we give an explicit algorithm for computing Ozsváth-Stipsicz-Szabó's $Υ$-invariant and the $d$-invariant of Dehn surgeries along knots in $S^3$. As its application, we compute the two invariants for all prime knots with up to 11 crossings.
A virtual knot that has a homologically trivial representative $\mathscr{K}$ in a thickened surface $Σ\times [0,1]$ is said to be an almost classical (AC) knot. $\mathscr{K}$ then bounds a Seifert surface $F\subset Σ\times [0,1]$. Seifert surfaces of AC knots are useful for computing concordance invariants and slice obstructions. However, Seifert surfaces in $Σ\times [0,1]$ are difficult to construct. Here we introduce virtual Seifert surfaces of AC knots. These are planar figures representing $F \subset Σ\times [0,1]$. An algorithm for constructing a virtual Seifert surface from a Gauss diagr…
This paper explores the interactions between knot theory and quantum computing. On one side, knot theory has been used to create models of quantum computing, and on the other, it is a source of computational problems. Knot theory is often used to introduce topological idea to people without a formal mathematical background, and we are building on this tradition to discuss some of the deeper ideas of quantum computing.
Previous work used polygonal realizations of knots to reduce the problem of computing the superbridge number of a realization to a linear programming problem, leading to new sharp upper bounds on the superbridge index of a number of knots. The present work extends this technique to polygonal realizations with an odd number of edges and determines the exact superbridge index of many new knots, including the majority of the 9-crossing knots for which it was previously unknown and, for the first time, several 12-crossing knots. Interestingly, at least half of these superbridge-minimizing polygona…
A knot is a circle piecewise-linearly embedded into the 3-sphere. The topology of a knot is intimately related to that of its exterior, which is the complement of an open regular neighborhood of the knot. Knots are typically encoded by planar diagrams, whereas their exteriors, which are compact 3-manifolds with torus boundary, are encoded by triangulations. Here, we give the first practical algorithm for finding a diagram of a knot given a triangulation of its exterior. Our method applies to links as well as knots, allows us to recover links with hundreds of crossings. We use it to find the fi…
We give an explicit formula to compute the rotation number of a nullhomologous Legendrian knot in contact (1/n)-surgery diagrams along Legendrian links and obtain a corresponding result for the self-linking number of transverse knots. Moreover, we extend the formula by Ding-Geiges-Stipsicz for computing the d3-invariant to (1/n)-surgeries.
A single qubit may be represented on the Bloch sphere or similarly on the $3$-sphere $S^3$. Our goal is to dress this correspondence by converting the language of universal quantum computing (UQC) to that of $3$-manifolds. A magic state and the Pauli group acting on it define a model of UQC as a positive operator-valued measure (POVM) that one recognizes to be a $3$-manifold $M^3$. More precisely, the $d$-dimensional POVMs defined from subgroups of finite index of the modular group $PSL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ correspond to $d$-fold $M^3$- coverings over the trefoil knot. In this paper, one also invest…
Rotation numbers and the Euler class in open books
Fraunhofer-Institut für Hochfrequenzphysik und Radartechnik FHR(弗劳恩霍夫高频物理与雷达技术研究所);Institut für Mathematik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin(柏林洪堡大学数学研究所);Mathematical Sciences Institute, The Australian National University(澳大利亚国立大学数学科学研究所)