On the classification of rational knots

MaRDI QIDQ1884063zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Sofia Lambropoulou, Louis Kauffman

Publication date 25 October 2004

Published in L'Enseignement Mathématique. 2e Série (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0212011

zbMATH Keywords

fractionrational tangle

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Abstract: This paper gives new and elementary combinatorial topological proofs of the classification of unoriented and oriented rational knots and links. These proofs are based on the known classification of alternating knots through flyping, and the calculus of continued fractions. We characterize the class of strongly invertible rational links. Rational links are of fundamental importance in the study of DNA recombination.

Review text

A rational knot or link (also called a 2-bridge knot or link, 4-plat or Viergeflecht) is obtained by joining together vertical or horizontal pairs of twisted strands in various simple ways (side by side, vertical stacking, etc.) to form a rational tangle, then taking a closure. Each such rational tangle determines a fraction, and each closure determines a continued fraction. The main theorems in this paper, due originally to Conway and Schubert, respectively, are that rational tangles are classified up to isotopy by their fractions, and rational knots and links are classified by the arithmetic equivalence classes of their fractions. In this paper, new combinatorial proofs of these two results are given, along with results on mirror images of rational knots, connectivity, oriented rational knots and links, and strongly invertible links (oriented links isotopic to themselves with one component reversed).

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