Knot Types, Homotopies and Stability of Closed Elastic Rods (Q4487579)

An elastic rod centerline is a space curve \(\gamma\) which is an extremal of an equation of the form \[ {\mathcal F}[\gamma]=\lambda_1\int_{\gamma} ds + \lambda_2\int_{\gamma} \tau ds+ \lambda_3\int_{\gamma} \kappa^2 \,ds, \] where \(\kappa\) and \(\tau\) (curvature and torsion) are the coefficients of the Frenet equations for a canonical frame along \(\gamma\), and where \(\lambda_1\), \(\lambda_2\) and \(\lambda_3\) are Lagrange multipliers. In this paper, the authors prove the following: Theorem 1: Every torus knot type is realized by a smooth closed elastic rod centerline. Theorem 2: The similarity classes of quasiperiodic elastic rod centerlines are parametrized by the closed unit disk. (Quasiperiodic centerlines are those which are either closed or wind densely around a torus.) The closed rod centerlines form a countable family of curves in the disk. Each such curve represents a regular homotopy of closed curves within the set of smooth closed elastic rod centerlines. For any relatively prime positive integers \(k\) and \(n\), there exists a regular homotopy between the \(k\)-times-covered circle and the \(n\)-times-covered circle. The homotopy includes exactly one elastic curve, one self-intersecting elastic rod centerline, and one closed curve of constant torsion.