Knot projections (Q2832145)

The 3 Reidemeister moves, denoted \(RI, RII, RIII\) may be utilized to alter either a knot diagram which shows over and under crossings, or a knot projection which does not show them. Knot projections, which may be thought of either as diffeomorphisms or piecewise linear maps of \(S^1\) into \(E^2\) or \(S^2\) and Reidemeister moves are the subject of this book, in which the piecewise linear approach is followed. While the 3 Reidemeister moves may be applied to transform any knot projection into a projection of the trivial knot, the author surveys the consequences of restricting the moves in various ways. To this end he identifies two types of \(RII\) and \(RIII\) moves. These he refers to as ``weak'' (\(RII_w\) and \(RIII_w\)) and ``strong'' (\(RII_s\) and \(RIII_s\)) .NEWLINENEWLINEA strong move is differentiated from a weak move by the possibility of coherently orienting the boundary of a 2-gon (\(RII_s\)) or a 3-gon (\(RIII_s\)) in the part of the projection involved in the move. With these four new moves there result seven possible ``Reidemeister'' moves, \(RI\), \(RII\), \(RIII\), \(RII_s\), \(RII_w\), \(RIII_s\) and \(RIII_w\). One may study the effects of allowing various subsets of these moves to act on knot projections. There are 31 distinct possibilities for sensible non-empty subsets, and virtually all receive direct or implicit attention.NEWLINENEWLINEFollowing two introductory chapters, suitable for high school students, each of the following 9 chapters is devoted to both planar and spherical projections, and invariants of and effects of a selection of a subset of the 7 moves enumerated above. The subsets, the chapters in which they appear and featured contents of the chapters are as follows: Chapters 1 and 2 are introductory for high school students, Chapter 3 is devoted to classification by rotation number of spherical and planar projections equivalent under \(RII\) and \(RIII\). Chapter 4 takes up the cases (\(RI,RII)\), (\(RI,RII_s\)), and (\(RI,RII_w\)) and introduces circle numbers, derived from Seifert circles. Both types of resolutions of double points are utilized to define invariants. Chapter 5 describes the lovely example of Hagge-Yazinski of a knot whose projection cannot be transformed to a trivial projection by application of moves of type \(RI\) and \(RIII\). The case (\(RI,RIII\)) is apparently still unresolved in general. In the case (\(RI, RIII_s\)), if the projection \(P\) is transformable to the unknot, then \(P\) is a sum of projections selected from the unknot, a figure eight and a trefoil. There are also some results on the case (\(RI,RIII_w\)). In Chapter 6 use is made of chord diagrams to define invariants of and investigate \(RIII_w\) and \(RIII_s\) and the cases (\(RI,RIII\)), (\(RI,RIII_s\)) and (\(RI,RIII_w\)). The irreducibility of the Hagge-Yazinski example in Chapter 5 is proved directly in Chapter 7, where the Arnold invariants are defined and utilized to study the cases \(RII_s\) and \(RII_w\) coupled with \(RIII\). An ``averaged'' invariant of Polyak is then defined for spherical projections and stated to be invariant under (\(RI,RII_s\)). Chapter 8 is devoted to a classification theorem for the case (\(RI,RIII_s\)). Chapter 9 returns to resolutions of double points, and the case (\(RI,RII_s\)). Of particular interest is the number of resolutions needed to obtain a projection with a nugatory crossing and the implications of that number. Unavoidable sets of tangles are also explained and studied. Chapter 10 handles the 4 cases (\(RI,RII_s,RIII_s\)), (\(RI,RII_s,RIII_w\)), (\(RI,RII_w,RIII_s\)), and (\(RI,RII_w,RIII_w\)). The last case is of principle interest and several invariants are defined and utilized for that case. Finally Chapter 11 returns to the study of the Arnold invariants and their invariance under \(RII_w\) and \(RIII_w\) along with their behavior under \(RII_s\). Generalization of Arnold by work of Viro is described and related to the quantum knot polynomials.NEWLINENEWLINEThe proofreader/editor has done the author no favors. There are numerous duplications, and confusingly, the proofs of numbered theorems are themselves numbered and the two numberings often do not coincide.NEWLINENEWLINEExcept for some remarks about quantum invariants in the last chapter, the book is suitable for hard working high school students as the proofs are direct and do not in general depend on deep or advanced results.