Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Desanti PDF
Desanti PDF
Giovanni De Santi
December 11, 2002
Knot Theory
Knot theory is an appealing subject because the objects studied are familiar in
everyday physical space. Although the subject matter of knot theory is familiar
to everyone and its problems are easily stated, arising not only in many branches
of mathematics but also in such diverse fields as biology, chemistry, and physics,
it is often unclear how to apply mathematical techniques even to the most basic
problems. We proceed to present these mathematical techniques.
1.1
Knots
The intuitive notion of a knot is that of a knotted loop of rope. This notion leads
naturally to the definition of a knot as a continuous simple closed curve in R3 .
Such a curve consists of a continuous function f : [0, 1] R3 with f (0) = f (1)
and with f (x) = f (y) implying one of three possibilities:
1. x = y
2. x = 0 and y = 1
3. x = 1 and y = 0
Unfortunately this definition admits pathological or so called wild knots into
our studies. The remedies are either to introduce the concept of differentiability
or to use polygonal curves instead of differentiable ones in the definition. The
simplest definitions in knot theory are based on the latter approach.
Definition 1.1 (knot) A knot is a simple closed polygonal curve in R3 .
The ordered set (p1 , p2 , . . . , pn ) defines a knot; the knot being the union of the
line segments [p1 , p2 ], [p2 , p3 ], . . . , [pn1 , pn ], and [pn , p1 ].
Definition 1.2 (vertices) If the ordered set (p1 , p2 , . . . , pn ) defines a knot and
no proper ordered subset defines the same knot, the elements of the set, pi , are
called the vertices of the knot.
Projections of a knot to the plane allow the representation of a knot as a knot
diagram. Certain knot projections are better than others as in some projections
too much information is lost.
Definition 1.3 (regular projection) A knot projection is called a regular projection if no three points on the knot project to the same point, and no vertex
projects to the same point as any other point on the knot.
Theorem 1.1 If a knot does not have a regular projection then there is an
equivalent knot that does have a regular projection.
Figure 3: Connected sum of the figure - eight knot and the trefoil knot.
The notion of equivalence of knots is based on their knot diagrams and the
following theorem.
Theorem 1.2 If knots K and J have identical diagrams, then they are equivalent.
1.2
Equivalence
Figure 5: The figure - eight knot is equivalent to its mirror image. A knot with
this property is called amphicheiral.
Definition 1.5 (colorable) A knot diagram is called colorable if each arc can
be drawn using one of three colors in such a way that:
1. At least two of the colors are used.
2. At each crossing either three different colors come together or all the same
color comes together.
In the same spirit as studying the surface of a knot, we may study the complement of the knot in three space, R3 K, and form its fundamental group. The
use of the fundamental group allows the definition of algebraic quantities without reference to diagrams for the knot. This framework also brings into play
the powerful techniques of algebraic topology, for instance, homology theory.
Below we define the classical and most natural invariants in the study of
knots. They are ways of associating integers to knots.
Definition 1.9 (crossing number) The crossing number of a knot K, denoted c(K), is the least number of crossings that occur, ranging over all possible
diagrams.
Definition 1.10 (unknotting number) The unknotting number of a knot K,
denoted u(K), is the least number of crossing changes that are required for the
knot to become unknotted, ranging over all possible diagrams.
Definition 1.11 (bridge number) The bridge number of a knot K, denoted
b(K), is the least number of bridges that occur, ranging over all possible diagrams. A bridge is considered to be an arc between two undercrossings with no
undercrossings inbetween and at least one overcrossing.
Although beyond the scope of this leisurely introduction to knot theory, one
of the most successfull and interesting ways to tell knots apart is through the
various knot polynomials, of which there is an incredible variety.
The definition of a prime knot and the prime decomposition theorem can
now be presented.
Definition 1.12 (prime knot) A knot is called prime if for any decomposition as a connected sum, one of the factors is unknotted.
Theorem 1.10 (Prime Decomposition Theorem) Every knot can be decomposed as the connected sum of nontrivial prime knots. If K = K1 #K2 # #Kn ,
and K = J1 #J2 # #Jm , with each Ki and Ji nontrivial prime knots, then m
= n, and, after reordering each Ki is equivalent to Ji
Appendix
Number of Crossings
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Table 1: Table of knots through sixteen crossings. Mirror images are excluded
from the count.
Figure 7: Table of knots through eight crossings, and most nine crossing knots.
10
Acknowledgements
Most of the material is from Livingston [3] and Adams [1].
References
[1] Adams, Colin C. The Knot Book: An Elementary Introduction to the
Mathematical Theory of Knots. W. H. Freeman and Company, New York,
New York, 2001.
[2] Crowell, R. H. and Fox, R. H. Introduction to Knot Theory. Graduate
Texts in Mathematics, Volume Fifty Seven. Springer - Verlag, New York Heidelberg - Berlin, 1977.
[3] Livingston, C. Knot Theory. The Carus Mathematical Monographs, Volume Twenty Four. The Mathematical Association of America, Washington,
D. C., 1993.
11