156 research outputs found
Homogeneous links, Seifert surfaces, digraphs and the reduced Alexander polynomial
We give a geometric proof of the following result of Juhasz. \emph{Let
be the leading coefficient of the Alexander polynomial of an alternating knot
. If then has a unique minimal genus Seifert surface.} In
doing so, we are able to generalise the result, replacing `minimal genus' with
`incompressible' and `alternating' with `homogeneous'. We also examine the
implications of our proof for alternating links in general.Comment: 37 pages, 28 figures; v2 Main results generalised from alternating
links to homogeneous links. Title change
A method of encoding generalized link diagrams
We describe a method of encoding various types of link diagrams, including
those with classical, flat, rigid, welded, and virtual crossings. We show that
this method may be used to encode link diagrams, up to equivalence, in a
notation whose length is a cubic function of the number of 'riser marks'. For
classical knots, the minimal number of such marks is twice the bridge index,
and a classical knot diagram in minimal bridge form with bridge index may
be encoded in space . A set of moves on the notation is
defined. As a demonstration of the utility of the notation we give another
proof that the Kishino virtual knot is non-classical.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures; to appear in the Journal of Knot Theory & Its
Ramification
The Alexander polynomial of planar even valence graphs
AbstractWe show how the Alexander/Conway link polynomial occurs in the context of planar even valence graphs, refining the notion of the number of their spanning trees. Then we apply knot theory to deduce several statements about this graph polynomial, in particular estimates for its coefficients and relations between congruences of the number of vertices and number of spanning trees of the graph
Measuring Topological Chaos
The orbits of fluid particles in two dimensions effectively act as
topological obstacles to material lines. A spacetime plot of the orbits of such
particles can be regarded as a braid whose properties reflect the underlying
dynamics. For a chaotic flow, the braid generated by the motion of three or
more fluid particles is computed. A ``braiding exponent'' is then defined to
characterize the complexity of the braid. This exponent is proportional to the
usual Lyapunov exponent of the flow, associated with separation of nearby
trajectories. Measuring chaos in this manner has several advantages, especially
from the experimental viewpoint, since neither nearby trajectories nor
derivatives of the velocity field are needed.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures. RevTeX 4 with PSFrag macro
Knots and Random Walks in Vibrated Granular Chains
We study experimentally statistical properties of the opening times of knots
in vertically vibrated granular chains. Our measurements are in good
qualitative and quantitative agreement with a theoretical model involving three
random walks interacting via hard core exclusion in one spatial dimension. In
particular, the knot survival probability follows a universal scaling function
which is independent of the chain length, with a corresponding diffusive
characteristic time scale. Both the large-exit-time and the small-exit-time
tails of the distribution are suppressed exponentially, and the corresponding
decay coefficients are in excellent agreement with the theoretical values.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Knots, Braids and BPS States in M-Theory
In previous work we considered M-theory five branes wrapped on elliptic
Calabi-Yau threefold near the smooth part of the discriminant curve. In this
paper, we extend that work to compute the light states on the worldvolume of
five-branes wrapped on fibers near certain singular loci of the discriminant.
We regulate the singular behavior near these loci by deforming the discriminant
curve and expressing the singularity in terms of knots and their associated
braids. There braids allow us to compute the appropriate string junction
lattice for the singularity and,hence to determine the spectrum of light BPS
states. We find that these techniques are valid near singular points with N=2
supersymmetry.Comment: 38 page
Braided racks, Hurwitz actions and Nichols algebras with many cubic relations
We classify Nichols algebras of irreducible Yetter-Drinfeld modules over
groups such that the underlying rack is braided and the homogeneous component
of degree three of the Nichols algebra satisfies a given inequality. This
assumption turns out to be equivalent to a factorization assumption on the
Hilbert series. Besides the known Nichols algebras we obtain a new example. Our
method is based on a combinatorial invariant of the Hurwitz orbits with respect
to the action of the braid group on three strands.Comment: v2: 35 pages, 6 tables, 14 figure
Describing semigroups with defining relations of the form xy=yz xy and yx=zy and connections with knot theory
We introduce a knot semigroup as a cancellative semigroup whose defining relations are produced from crossings on a knot diagram in a way similar to the Wirtinger presentation of the knot group; to be more precise, a knot semigroup as we define it is closely related to such tools of knot theory as the twofold branched cyclic cover space of a knot and the involutory quandle of a knot. We describe knot semigroups of several standard classes of knot diagrams, including torus knots and torus links T(2, n) and twist knots. The description includes a solution of the word problem. To produce this description, we introduce alternating sum semigroups as certain naturally defined factor semigroups of free semigroups over cyclic groups. We formulate several conjectures for future research
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