Total curvature and packing of knots

DOI10.1016/J.TOPOL.2006.04.002MaRDI QIDQ857049zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Gregory R. Buck, Jonathan K. Simon

Publication date 14 December 2006

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

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0310365

zbMATH Keywords

average crossing number of knots crossing number of knots curvature of knots ropelength of knots

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Curves in Euclidean and related spaces (53A04)

Abstract: We establish a new fundamental relationship between total curvature of knots and crossing number. If K is a smooth knot in 3-space, R the cross-section radius of a uniform tube neighborhood of K, L the arclength of K, and k the total curvature of K, then (up to a coefficient independent of K), crossing number of K < (k)(L/R). There are families of knots whose crossing numbers grow faster than either k or L/R separately. For example, the knots whose crossing numbers grow with the (4/3)-power of ropelength must have total curvature growing arbitrarily large as well.

Review text

Let \(K\) be a smooth knot embedded in \(\mathbb{R}^3\). For \(r>0\), consider the disks of radius \(r\) normal to \(K\), centered at points of \(K\). For \(r\) sufficiently small, these disks are pairwise disjoint and combine to form a tubular neighborhood of \(K\). Let \(R(K)\), the \textit{thickness radius} of \(K\), denote the supremum of such radii. The \textit{ropelength} of \(K\), denoted \(E_L(K)\), is the ratio of the total arclength of \(K\) over \(R(K)\). The \textit{average crossing number} of \(K\), denoted \(acn(K)\), is the average of the number of crossings taken over all projection directions that lead to a regular projection of \(K\). Let \(cr(K)\) be the minimum crossing number of \(K\) and \(\tau(K)\) denote the total curvature of \(K\). The main theorem of this article is the following: For a smooth knot \(K\) in \(\mathbb{R}^3\), \[ cr(K)\leq acn(K)< 4 E_L(K)\tau(K). \] The same authors showed in [Topology Appl. 91, No. 3, 245--257 (1999; Zbl 0924.57012)], that \(acn(K)\leq E_L(K)^{4/3}\) using similar techniques. The new arguments here are about the curvature of curves that are packed in certain ways. The bounds on the \(acn(K)\) imply that knot families whose crossing number grows as the \(4/3\)-power of their ropelength must have unbounded total curvature. In the final section of the article the authors conjecture that in fact \(acn(K)\leq 4 E_L(K)\tau(K)^{1/2}\) and give a heuristic argument to support this.

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