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Regular Isotopy
In the mathematical subject of knot theory, regular isotopy is the equivalence relation of link diagrams that is generated by using the 2nd and 3rd Reidemeister moves only. The notion of regular isotopy was introduced by Louis Kauffman (Kauffman 1990). It can be thought of as an isotopy of a ribbon pressed flat against the plane which keeps the ribbon flat. For diagrams in the plane this is a finer equivalence relation than ambient isotopy of framed links, since the 2nd and 3rd Reidemeister moves preserve the winding number In mathematics, the winding number or winding index of a closed curve in the plane (mathematics), plane around a given point (mathematics), point is an integer representing the total number of times that the curve travels counterclockwise aroun ... of the diagram (Kauffman 1990, pp. 450ff.). However, for diagrams in the sphere (considered as the plane plus infinity), the two notions are equivalent, due to the extra freedom of passing a strand thr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many areas of mathematics, which include number theory (the study of numbers), algebra (the study of formulas and related structures), geometry (the study of shapes and spaces that contain them), Mathematical analysis, analysis (the study of continuous changes), and set theory (presently used as a foundation for all mathematics). Mathematics involves the description and manipulation of mathematical object, abstract objects that consist of either abstraction (mathematics), abstractions from nature orin modern mathematicspurely abstract entities that are stipulated to have certain properties, called axioms. Mathematics uses pure reason to proof (mathematics), prove properties of objects, a ''proof'' consisting of a succession of applications of in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knot Theory
In topology, knot theory is the study of knot (mathematics), mathematical knots. While inspired by knots which appear in daily life, such as those in shoelaces and rope, a mathematical knot differs in that the ends are joined so it cannot be undone, the simplest knot being a ring (or "unknot"). In mathematical language, a knot is an embedding of a circle in 3-dimensional Euclidean space, \mathbb^3. Two mathematical knots are equivalent if one can be transformed into the other via a deformation of \mathbb^3 upon itself (known as an ambient isotopy); these transformations correspond to manipulations of a knotted string that do not involve cutting it or passing it through itself. Knots can be described in various ways. Using different description methods, there may be more than one description of the same knot. For example, a common method of describing a knot is a planar diagram called a knot diagram, in which any knot can be drawn in many different ways. Therefore, a fundamental p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Equivalence Relation
In mathematics, an equivalence relation is a binary relation that is reflexive, symmetric, and transitive. The equipollence relation between line segments in geometry is a common example of an equivalence relation. A simpler example is equality. Any number a is equal to itself (reflexive). If a = b, then b = a (symmetric). If a = b and b = c, then a = c (transitive). Each equivalence relation provides a partition of the underlying set into disjoint equivalence classes. Two elements of the given set are equivalent to each other if and only if they belong to the same equivalence class. Notation Various notations are used in the literature to denote that two elements a and b of a set are equivalent with respect to an equivalence relation R; the most common are "a \sim b" and "", which are used when R is implicit, and variations of "a \sim_R b", "", or "" to specify R explicitly. Non-equivalence may be written "" or "a \not\equiv b". Definitions A binary relation \,\si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knot Diagram
In topology, knot theory is the study of mathematical knots. While inspired by knots which appear in daily life, such as those in shoelaces and rope, a mathematical knot differs in that the ends are joined so it cannot be undone, the simplest knot being a ring (or "unknot"). In mathematical language, a knot is an embedding of a circle in 3-dimensional Euclidean space, \mathbb^3. Two mathematical knots are equivalent if one can be transformed into the other via a deformation of \mathbb^3 upon itself (known as an ambient isotopy); these transformations correspond to manipulations of a knotted string that do not involve cutting it or passing it through itself. Knots can be described in various ways. Using different description methods, there may be more than one description of the same knot. For example, a common method of describing a knot is a planar diagram called a knot diagram, in which any knot can be drawn in many different ways. Therefore, a fundamental problem in knot the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reidemeister Move
In the mathematical area of knot theory, a Reidemeister move is any of three local moves on a link diagram. and, independently, , demonstrated that two knot diagrams belonging to the same knot, up to planar isotopy, can be related by a sequence of the three Reidemeister moves. Each move operates on a small region of the diagram and is one of three types: No other part of the diagram is involved in the picture of a move, and a planar isotopy may distort the picture. The numbering for the types of moves corresponds to how many strands are involved, e.g. a type II move operates on two strands of the diagram. One important context in which the Reidemeister moves appear is in defining knot invariants. By demonstrating a property of a knot diagram which is not changed when we apply any of the Reidemeister moves, an invariant is defined. Many important invariants can be defined in this way, including the Jones polynomial. The type I move is the only move that affects the writh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Kauffman
Louis Hirsch Kauffman (born February 3, 1945) is an American mathematician, mathematical physicist, and professor of mathematics in the Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He does research in topology, knot theory, topological quantum field theory, quantum information theory, and diagrammatic and categorical mathematics. He is best known for the introduction and development of the bracket polynomial and the Kauffman polynomial. Biography Kauffman was valedictorian of his graduating class at Norwood Norfolk Central High School in 1962. He received his B.S. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1966 and his Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton University in 1972, with thesis ''Cyclic Branched-Covers, O(n)-Actions and Hypersurface Singularities'' written under the supervision of William Browder. Kauffman has worked at many places as a visiting professor and researcher, including the University of Za ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ambient Isotopy
In the mathematical subject of topology, an ambient isotopy, also called an ''h-isotopy'', is a kind of continuous distortion of an ambient space, for example a manifold, taking a submanifold to another submanifold. For example in knot theory, one considers two knots the same if one can distort one knot into the other without breaking it. Such a distortion is an example of an ambient isotopy. More precisely, let N and M be manifolds and g and h be embeddings of N in M. A continuous map :F:M \times ,1\rightarrow M is defined to be an ambient isotopy taking g to h if F_0 is the identity map, each map F_t is a homeomorphism from M to itself, and F_1 \circ g = h. This implies that the orientation must be preserved by ambient isotopies. For example, two knots that are mirror images of each other are, in general, not equivalent. See also * Isotopy * Regular homotopy *Regular isotopy References *M. A. Armstrong, ''Basic Topology'', Springer-Verlag Springer Science+Business M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Framed Link
In mathematics, a knot is an embedding of the circle () into three-dimensional Euclidean space, (also known as ). Often two knots are considered equivalent if they are ambient isotopic, that is, if there exists a continuous deformation of which takes one knot to the other. A crucial difference between the standard mathematical and conventional notions of a knot is that mathematical knots are closed — there are no ends to tie or untie on a mathematical knot. Physical properties such as friction and thickness also do not apply, although there are mathematical definitions of a knot that take such properties into account. The term ''knot'' is also applied to embeddings of in , especially in the case . The branch of mathematics that studies knots is known as knot theory and has many relations to graph theory. Formal definition A knot is an embedding of the circle () into three-dimensional Euclidean space (), or the 3-sphere (), since the 3-sphere is compact. Two knots ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Winding Number
In mathematics, the winding number or winding index of a closed curve in the plane (mathematics), plane around a given point (mathematics), point is an integer representing the total number of times that the curve travels counterclockwise around the point, i.e., the curve's number of turns. For certain open plane curves, the number of turns may be a non-integer. The winding number depends on the curve orientation, orientation of the curve, and it is negative number, negative if the curve travels around the point clockwise. Winding numbers are fundamental objects of study in algebraic topology, and they play an important role in vector calculus, complex analysis, geometric topology, differential geometry, and physics (such as in string theory). Intuitive description Suppose we are given a closed, oriented curve in the ''xy'' plane. We can imagine the curve as the path of motion of some object, with the orientation indicating the direction in which the object moves. Then the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ambient Isotopy
In the mathematical subject of topology, an ambient isotopy, also called an ''h-isotopy'', is a kind of continuous distortion of an ambient space, for example a manifold, taking a submanifold to another submanifold. For example in knot theory, one considers two knots the same if one can distort one knot into the other without breaking it. Such a distortion is an example of an ambient isotopy. More precisely, let N and M be manifolds and g and h be embeddings of N in M. A continuous map :F:M \times ,1\rightarrow M is defined to be an ambient isotopy taking g to h if F_0 is the identity map, each map F_t is a homeomorphism from M to itself, and F_1 \circ g = h. This implies that the orientation must be preserved by ambient isotopies. For example, two knots that are mirror images of each other are, in general, not equivalent. See also * Isotopy * Regular homotopy *Regular isotopy References *M. A. Armstrong, ''Basic Topology'', Springer-Verlag Springer Science+Business M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knot Polynomial
In the mathematical field of knot theory, a knot polynomial is a knot invariant in the form of a polynomial whose coefficients encode some of the properties of a given knot. History The first knot polynomial, the Alexander polynomial, was introduced by James Waddell Alexander II in 1923. Other knot polynomials were not found until almost 60 years later. In the 1960s, John Conway came up with a skein relation for a version of the Alexander polynomial, usually referred to as the Alexander–Conway polynomial. The significance of this skein relation was not realized until the early 1980s, when Vaughan Jones discovered the Jones polynomial. This led to the discovery of more knot polynomials, such as the so-called HOMFLY polynomial. Soon after Jones' discovery, Louis Kauffman noticed the Jones polynomial could be computed by means of a partition function (state-sum model), which involved the bracket polynomial, an invariant of framed knots. This opened up avenues of research linki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
