Local structure of ideal shapes of knots

DOI10.1016/J.TOPOL.2007.07.004MaRDI QIDQ2460841zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Oguz C. Durumeric

Publication date 16 November 2007

Published in Topology and its Applications (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0204063

zbMATH Keywords

ideal knotsnormal injectivity radiusthickness of knots

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Curves in Euclidean and related spaces (53A04) Global Riemannian geometry, including pinching (53C20) Methods of global Riemannian geometry, including PDE methods; curvature restrictions (53C21) Variational principles in infinite-dimensional spaces (58E30)

Abstract: Relatively extremal knots are the relative minima of the ropelength functional in C^1 topology. On the set curves of fixed length, they are the relative maxima of thickness (normal injectivity radius) functional, including the ideal knots. We prove that a C^{1,1} relatively extremal knot in R^n has thickness equal to half of the minimal double critical distance unless it has constant maximal (generalized) curvature. This result also applies to links since our method is local. Our main approach is to show that the shortest curves with bounded curvature and C^1 boundary conditions in R^n contain CLC (circle-line-circle) curves, if they do not have constant maximal curvature.

Review text

The author studies the local structure of \(C^{1,1}\) relatively extremal knots in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) \((n\geq 2)\) by using a length minimization problem with bounded curvature and \(C^1\) boundary conditions. The concept of the thickness of a knotted curve is defined as the radius of the largest tubular neighbourhood around the curve without intersections of the normal discs. The author proves that \(C^{1,1}\) relatively extremal knot in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) either has constant maximal curvature or its thickness is equal to half of the double critical self distance. The paper contains interesting illustrative pictures. In the introduction we find a review of the literature on concepts and problems in question.

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Cited in

(10)

• Nonuniform thickness and weighted distance
• Locking constraints for elastic rods and a curvature bound for spatial curves
• POLYGONAL KNOT SPACE NEAR ROPELENGTH-MINIMIZED KNOTS
• Global curvature, thickness, and the ideal shapes of knots
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