William Menasco
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William Menasco
William W. Menasco is a topologist and a professor at the University at Buffalo. He is best known for his work in knot theory. Biography Menasco received his B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1975, and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1981, where his advisor was Robion Kirby. He served as assistant professor at Rutgers University from 1981 to 1984. He then taught as a visiting professor at the University at Buffalo where he became an assistant professor in 1985, an associate professor in 1991. In 1994 he became a professor at the University at Buffalo where he currently serves. Work Menasco proved that a link with an alternating diagram, such as an alternating link, will be non-split if and only if the diagram is connected. Menasco, along with Morwen Thistlethwaite proved the Tait flyping conjecture, which states that, given any two reduced alternating diagrams D1,D2 of an oriented, prime alternating link, D1 may be transformed to D2 ...
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Topologist
In mathematics, topology (from the Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing holes, opening holes, tearing, gluing, or passing through itself. A topological space is a set endowed with a structure, called a ''topology'', which allows defining continuous deformation of subspaces, and, more generally, all kinds of continuity. Euclidean spaces, and, more generally, metric spaces are examples of a topological space, as any distance or metric defines a topology. The deformations that are considered in topology are homeomorphisms and homotopies. A property that is invariant under such deformations is a topological property. Basic examples of topological properties are: the dimension, which allows distinguishing between a line and a surface; compactness, which allows distinguishing between a line and a circle; connectedne ...
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Alternating Link
Alternating may refer to: Mathematics * Alternating algebra, an algebra in which odd-grade elements square to zero * Alternating form, a function formula in algebra * Alternating group, the group of even permutations of a finite set * Alternating knot, a knot or link diagram for which the crossings alternate under, over, under, over, as one travels along each component of the link * Alternating map, a multilinear map that is zero whenever any two of its arguments are equal * Alternating operator, a multilinear map in algebra * Alternating permutation, a type of permutation studied in combinatorics * Alternating series, an infinite series in which the signs of the general terms alternate between positive and negative Electronics * Alternating current, a flow of electric charge that periodically reverses direction Other * Alternating turns, the process by which people in a conversation decide who is to speak next See also * Alternate bass * Alternative (other) Al ...
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Living People
Related categories * :Year of birth missing (living people) / :Year of birth unknown * :Date of birth missing (living people) / :Date of birth unknown * :Place of birth missing (living people) / :Place of birth unknown * :Year of death missing / :Year of death unknown * :Date of death missing / :Date of death unknown * :Place of death missing / :Place of death unknown * :Missing middle or first names See also * :Dead people * :Template:L, which generates this category or death years, and birth year and sort keys. : {{DEFAULTSORT:Living people 21st-century people People by status ...
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Flype
In the mathematical theory of knots, a flype is a kind of manipulation of knot and link diagrams used in the Tait flyping conjecture. It consists of twisting a part of a knot, a tangle T, by 180 degrees. Flype comes from a Scots word meaning ''to fold'' or ''to turn back'' ("as with a sock").. Tait used the term to mean, "a change of infinite complementary region"). Two reduced alternating diagrams of an alternating link can be transformed to each other using flypes. This is the Tait flyping conjecture, proven in 1991 by Morwen Thistlethwaite and William Menasco. See also * Reidemeister move Kurt Werner Friedrich Reidemeister (13 October 1893 – 8 July 1971) was a mathematician born in Braunschweig (Brunswick), Germany. Life He was a brother of Marie Neurath. Beginning in 1912, he studied in Freiburg, Munich, Marburg, and Göttinge ...s are another commonly studied kind of manipulation to knot diagrams. References Knot operations {{knottheory-stub ...
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Knot Diagram
In the mathematical field of 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 (in topology, a circle is not bound to the classical geometric concept, but to all of its homeomorphisms). 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 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 di ...
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Tait Conjectures
The Tait conjectures are three conjectures made by 19th-century mathematician Peter Guthrie Tait in his study of knots.. The Tait conjectures involve concepts in knot theory such as alternating knots, chirality, and writhe. All of the Tait conjectures have been solved, the most recent being the Flyping conjecture. Background Tait came up with his conjectures after his attempt to tabulate all knots in the late 19th century. As a founder of the field of knot theory, his work lacks a mathematically rigorous framework, and it is unclear whether he intended the conjectures to apply to all knots, or just to alternating knots. It turns out that most of them are only true for alternating knots. In the Tait conjectures, a knot diagram is called "reduced" if all the "isthmi", or "nugatory crossings" have been removed. Crossing number of alternating knots Tait conjectured that in certain circumstances, crossing number was a knot invariant, specifically: Any reduced diagram of an alterna ...
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Morwen Thistlethwaite
Morwen Bernard Thistlethwaite is a knot theorist and professor of mathematics for the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He has made important contributions to both knot theory and Rubik's Cube group theory. Biography Morwen Thistlethwaite received his BA from the University of Cambridge in 1967, his MSc from the University of London in 1968, and his PhD from the University of Manchester in 1972 where his advisor was Michael Barratt. He studied piano with Tanya Polunin, James Gibb and Balint Vazsonyi, giving concerts in London before deciding to pursue a career in mathematics in 1975. He taught at the North London Polytechnic from 1975 to 1978 and the Polytechnic of the South Bank, London from 1978 to 1987. He served as a visiting professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara for a year before going to the University of Tennessee, where he currently is a professor. His wife, Stella Thistlethwaite, also teaches at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Thistlet ...
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Split Link
In the mathematical field of knot theory, a split link is a link that has a (topological) 2-sphere in its complement separating one or more link components from the others. A split link is said to be splittable, and a link that is not split is called a non-split link or not splittable. Whether a link is split or non-split corresponds to whether the link complement is reducible or irreducible as a 3-manifold. A link with an alternating diagram, i.e. an alternating link, will be non-split if and only if this diagram is connected. This is a result of the work of William Menasco William W. Menasco is a topologist and a professor at the University at Buffalo. He is best known for his work in knot theory. Biography Menasco received his B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1975, and his Ph.D. from the Univ ..... A split link has many connected, non-alternating link diagrams. References Links (knot theory) {{knottheory-stub ...
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Alternating Diagram
In knot theory, a knot or link diagram is alternating if the crossings alternate under, over, under, over, as one travels along each component of the link. A link is alternating if it has an alternating diagram. Many of the knots with crossing number less than 10 are alternating. This fact and useful properties of alternating knots, such as the Tait conjectures, was what enabled early knot tabulators, such as Tait, to construct tables with relatively few mistakes or omissions. The simplest non-alternating prime knots have 8 crossings (and there are three such: 819, 820, 821). It is conjectured that as the crossing number increases, the percentage of knots that are alternating goes to 0 exponentially quickly. Alternating links end up having an important role in knot theory and 3-manifold theory, due to their complements having useful and interesting geometric and topological properties. This led Ralph Fox to ask, "What is an alternating knot?" By this he was asking what non-diag ...
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