Knots connected by wide ribbons

. In the 1960s and 1970s, G. Calugareanu, G. H. White, and F. B. Fuller proved relationships between the geometry and topology of thin ribbons, in particular the "Link = Twist + Writhe" theorem that has been applied to help understand properties of double-stranded DNA. Although ribbons of small width have been studied extensively, it appears that less is known about ribbons of large width whose images (even via a smooth map) can be singular or self-intersecting. Suppose

K

is a smoothly embedded knot in

m a t h b b R^{3}

. Given a regular parameterization

m a t h b f x (s)

, and a smooth unit vector field

m a t h b f u (s)

based along

K

, we may define a ribbon of width

R

associated to

m a t h b f x

and

m a t h b f u

as the set of all points

m a t h b f x (s) + r m a t h b f u (s)

,

r i n [0, R]

. For large

R

, these wide ribbons typically have self-intersections. In this paper, we analyze how the knot type of the outer ribbon edge

m a t h b f x (s) + R m a t h b f u (s)

relates to that of the original knot

K

. We show that, generically, there is an eventual limiting knot type of the outer ribbon edge as

R

gets arbitrary large. We prove that this eventual knot type is one of only finitely many possibilities which depend just on the vector field

m a t h b f u

. However, the particular knot type within the finite set depends on the parameterized curves

m a t h b f x (s)

,

m a t h b f u (s)

, and their interactions. Finally, we show how to control the curves and their parameterizations so that given two knot types

K_{1}

and

K_{2}

, we can find a smooth ribbon of constant width connecting curves of these two knot types.

Recommendations

Cites work

This page was built for publication: Knots connected by wide ribbons

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q5215802)