INSCRIBING SMOOTH KNOTS WITH REGULAR POLYGONS (Q4465111)

This paper addresses the following question. Given a knot \(K\) in \(\mathbb R^3\) and any positive integer \(n\geq 3\), is it possible to find an \(n\)-sided polygon with all its vertices on \(K\), whose sides are of equal length ({regular \(n\)-gon}). It is known, but unpublished, that, for any smooth \(K\), there is some \(N\) such that if \(n\geq N\), a regular \(n\)-gon for \(K\) exists. A short proof of this fact is given here. The main result of the paper is that, for any smooth knot \(K\) and any \(n\), a regular \(n\)-gon exists for \(K\). In fact, more generally, \(K\) only need be the image of a smooth map \(S^1\to\mathbb R^3\) which has a point which is not a double point and has a neighborhood on which the map has non-zero derivative. It is shown by simple examples that these conditions are necessary. The question of whether any non-smooth knot admits a regular \(n\)-gon for any \(n\) is still open.