Möbius energy of thick knots (Q1862077)

The authors give explicit bounds of the Möbius energy of a knot in terms of the ropelength of the knot. The terms are defined as follows: The Möbius energy of a knot is an energy functional \(E(K)\) defined for a smooth knot \(K\) by \(E(K)= \int_{x\in K} \int_{y\in K} {1\over{|x-y|^{2}}}-{1\over {\text{arc}(x,y)^{2}}}\), where \(\text{arc}(x,y)\) denotes the minimum arclength along the curve \(K\) between \(x\) and \(y\). Assuming that \(K\) is \(C^{2}\) for each \(x \in K\), let \(D(x,r)\) denote the disk of radius \(r\) centered at \(x\) and orthogonal at \(x\) to \(K\). For sufficiently small \(r>0\), the disks are pair-wise disjoint, their union forming a tubular neighborhood of \(K\). One defines the injectivity radius of \(K\), \(R(K)\), to be the supremum of such good radii. \(R(K)\) measures the maximum thickness a ``rope'' could have to form the curve \(K\). Let the ropelength energy of \(K\) be \(E_{L}(K)={\text{arc length}(K) \over {R(K)}}\). The main theorems of the article are the following inequalities: \(E(K) \leq 4.57 E_{L}(K)^{4/3}\) and \(E(K) \leq {1\over 4} E_{L}(K)^{2}\). It should be pointed out that both the previous inequalities have been established previously, however the coefficient in the 4/3-power bound here is smaller due to a more subtle analysis; see the article by \textit{G. Buck} and \textit{J. Simon} [Topology Appl. 91, No. 3, 245-257 (1999; Zbl 0924.57012)].