Topological and physical link theory are distinct (Q2516656)

The present paper is dedicated to the study of knots theory from two points of view: physical and topological. The authors present physical knots and links like one-dimensional submanifolds of \(\mathbb{R}^{3}\) with fixed length and thickness. Also, in their proofs the authors use the isotopy classes. The authors also develop a particular case, namely a ``Gordian split link'': a two-component link that is split in the classical theory but cannot be split with a physical isotopy. The paper consists of 5 parts; in the last parts some interesting open problems are also given.