In this article we take up the calculation of the minimum number of colors needed to produce a non-trivial coloring of a knot. This is a knot invariant and we use the torus knots of type (2, n) as our case study. We calculate the minima in some cases. In other cases we estimate upper bounds for these minima leaning on the features of modular arithmetic. We introduce a sequence of transformations on colored diagrams called Teneva Transformations. Each of these Transformations reduces the number of colors in the diagrams by one (up to a point). This allows us to further decrease the upper bounds on these minima. We conjecture on the value of these minima. We apply these Transformations to rational knots.
We prove that any $11$-colorable knot is presented by an $11$-colored diagram where exactly five colors of eleven are assigned to the arcs. The number five is the minimum for all non-trivially $11$-colored diagrams of the knot. We also prove a similar result for any $11$-colorable ribbon $2$-knot.
We investigate Fox colorings of knots that are 17-colorable. Precisely, we prove that any 17-colorable knot has a diagram such that exactly 6 among the seventeen colors are assigned to the arcs of the diagram.
We give lower bounds for the Gordian distance and the unknotting number of handlebody-knots by using Alexander biquandle colorings. We construct handlebody-knots with Gordian distance $n$ and unknotting number $n$ for any positive integer $n$.
The minimum number of colors is a challenging knot invariant since, by definition, its calculation requires taking the minimum over infinitely many minima. In this article we estimate and in some cases calculate the minimum number of colors for the Turk's head knots on three strands.
Relations will be described between the quandle cocycle invariant and the minimal number of colors used for non-trivial Fox colorings of knots and links. In particular, a lower bound for the minimal number is given in terms of the quandle cocycle invariant.
Knots are commonly found in molecular chains such as DNA and proteins, and they have been considered to be useful models for structural analysis of these molecules. One interested quantity is the minimum number of monomers necessary to realize a molecular knot. The minimum lattice length $\mbox{Len}(K)$ of a knot $K$ indicates the minimum length necessary to construct $K$ in the cubic lattice. Another important quantity in physical knot theory is the ropelength which is one of knot energies measuring the complexity of knot conformation. The minimum ropelength $\mbox{Rop}(K)$ is the minimum len…
We present a set of 26 finite quandles that distinguish (up to reversal and mirror image) by number of colorings, all of the 2977 prime oriented knots with up to 12 crossings. We also show that 1058 of these knots can be distinguished from their mirror images by the number of colorings by quandles from a certain set of 23 finite quandles. We study the colorings of these 2977 knots by all of the 431 connected quandles of order at most 35 found by L. Vendramin. Among other things, we collect information about quandles that have the same number of colorings for all of the 2977 knots. For example,…
It is known that the number of biquandle colorings of a long virtual knot diagram, with a fixed color of the initial arc, is a knot invariant. In this paper we describe a more subtle invariant: a family of biquandle endomorphisms obtained from the set of colorings and longitudinal information.
We improve the lower bound for the minimum number of colors for linear Alexander quandle colorings of a knot given in Theorem 1.2 of Colorings beyond Fox: The other linear Alexander quandles (Linear Algebra and its Applications, Vol. 548, 2018). We express this lower bound in terms of the degree k of the reduced Alexander polynomial of the considered knot. We show that it is exactly k + 1 for L-space knots. Then we apply these results to torus knots and Pretzel knots P(-2,3,2l + 1), l>=0. We note that this lower bound can be attained for some particular knots. Furthermore, we show that Theorem…
Let $\mbox{Len}(K)$ be the minimum length of a knot on the cubic lattice (namely the minimum length necessary to construct the knot in the cubic lattice). This paper provides upper bounds for $\mbox{Len}(K)$ of a nontrivial knot $K$ in terms of its crossing number $c(K)$ as follows: $\mbox{Len}(K) \leq \min \left\{ \frac{3}{4}c(K)^2 + 5c(K) + \frac{17}{4}, \, \frac{5}{8}c(K)^2 + \frac{15}{2}c(K) + \frac{71}{8} \right\}.$ The ropelength of a knot is the quotient of its length by its thickness, the radius of the largest embedded normal tube around the knot. We also provide upper bounds for the m…
A representation for compact 3-manifolds with non-empty non-spherical boundary via 4-colored graphs (i.e., 4-regular graphs endowed with a proper edge-coloration with four colors) has been recently introduced by two of the authors, and an initial classification of such manifolds has been obtained up to 8 vertices of the representing graphs. Computer experiments show that the number of graphs/manifolds grows very quickly as the number of vertices increases. As a consequence, we have focused on the case of orientable 3-manifolds with toric boundary, which contains the important case of complemen…
We study the asymptotic behavior of the $N$-dimensional colored Jones polynomial evaluated at $\exp(ξ/N)$ for a real number $ξ$ greater than a certain constant. We prove that, from the asymptotic behavior, we can extract the $\rm{SL}(2;\mathbb{C})$ Chern--Simons invariant and the Reidemeister torsion twisted by the adjoint action both associated with a representation determined by $ξ$.
We define the concordance crosscap number of a knot as the minimum crosscap number among all the knots concordant to the knot. The four-dimensional crosscap number is the minimum first Betti number of non-orientable surfaces smoothly embedded in 4-dimensional ball, bounding the knot. Clearly the 4-dimensional crosscap number is smaller than or equal to the concordance crosscap number. We construct two infinite sequences of knots to explain the gap between the two. In particular, the knot $7_4$ is one of the examples.
Minimum braids are a complete invariant of knots and links. This paper defines minimum braids, describes how they can be generated, presents tables for knots up to ten crossings and oriented links up to nine crossings, and uses minimum braids to study graph trees, amphicheirality, unknotting numbers, and periodic tables.
We show that a knot whose minimum crossing number $c(K)$ is even and greater than $30$ is not fertile; there exists a knot $K'$ with crossing number less than $c$ such that $K'$ is not obtained from a minimum crossing number diagram of $K$ by suitably changing the over-under information.
The unknotting number of a knot is the minimum number of crossings one must change to turn that knot into the unknot. The algebraic unknotting number is the minimum number of crossing changes needed to transform a knot into an Alexander polynomial-one knot. We work with a generalization of unknotting number due to Mathieu-Domergue, which we call the untwisting number. The untwisting number is the minimum number (over all diagrams of a knot) of right- or left-handed twists on even numbers of strands of a knot, with half of the strands oriented in each direction, necessary to transform that knot…
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…
We extend techniques due to Pardon to show that there is a lower bound on the distortion of a knot in $\mathbb{R}^3$ proportional to the minimum of the bridge distance and the bridge number of the knot. We also exhibit an infinite family of knots for which the minimum of the bridge distance and the bridge number is unbounded and Pardon's lower bound is constant.
In "Width complexes for knots and 3-manifolds," Jennifer Schultens defines the width complex for a knot in order to understand the different positions a knot can occupy in the 3-sphere and the isotopies between these positions. She poses several questions about these width complexes; in particular, she asks whether the width complex for a knot can have local minima that are not global minima. In this paper, we find an embedding of the unknot that is a local minimum but not a global minimum in its width complex. We use this embedding to exhibit for any knot K infinitely many distinct local mini…
The Gukov-Manolescu series, denoted by $F_K$, is a conjectural invariant of knot complements that, in a sense, analytically continues the colored Jones polynomials. In this paper we use the large color $R$-matrix to study $F_K$ for some simple links. Specifically, we give a definition of $F_K$ for positive braid knots, and compute $F_K$ for various knots and links. As a corollary, we present a class of `strange identities' for positive braid knots.
We establish the volume conjecture for (m,2)-cables of the figure 8 knot, when m is odd. For (m,2)-cables of general knots where m is even, we show that the limit in the volume conjecture depends on the parity of the color (of the Kashaev invariant). There are many cases when the volume conjecture for cables of the figure 8 knot is false if one considers all the colors, but holds true if one restricts the colors to a subset of the set of positive integers.
The region select game, introduced by Ayaka Shimizu, Akio Kawauchi and Kengo Kishimoto, is a game that is played on knot diagrams whose crossings are endowed with two colors. The game is based on the region crossing change moves that induce an unknotting operation on knot diagrams. We generalize the region select game to be played on a knot diagram endowed with $k$-colors at its vertices for $2 \leq k \leq \infty$.
To a knot in 3-space, one can associate a sequence of Laurent polynomials, whose $n$th term is the $n$th colored Jones polynomial. The paper is concerned with the asymptotic behavior of the value of the $n$th colored Jones polynomial at $e^{\a/n}$, when $\a$ is a fixed complex number and $n$ tends to infinity. We analyze this asymptotic behavior to all orders in $1/n$ when $\a$ is a sufficiently small complex number. In addition, we give upper bounds for the coefficients and degree of the $n$th colored Jones polynomial, with applications to upper bounds in the Generalized Volume Conjecture. Wo…
The colored HOMLFY polynomial is an important knot invariant depending on two variables $a$ and $q$. We give bounds on the degree in both $a$ and $q$ generalizing Morton's bounds \cite{Mo86} for the ordinary HOMFLY polynomial. Our bounds suggest that the degree detects certain incompressible surfaces in the knot complement and perhaps more generally features of the $SL(N)$ character varieties of the knot group. We formulate a precise conjecture along these lines generalizing the slope conjecture of Garoufalidis \cite{Ga11}. We prove our conjecture for all positive knots. Our technique is a ref…
