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Knot theory is dealing with embedding of curves in manifolds of dimension 3. A knot is a single circle embedded in the affine space of dimension 3 as a smooth curve not crossing itself. Many knot invariants are known and can be used to distinguish knots.

41 votes

What part is left unsolved in the Unknotting problem? (after results of Bar-Natan, Khovanov,...

To strengthen Sam Nead's answer, note that it is trivial to compute the Jones polynomial from the Khovanov homology. It is known that computing (or even approximating) the Jones polynomial is #P-hard: …
Dylan Thurston's user avatar
24 votes

What part is left unsolved in the Unknotting problem? (after results of Bar-Natan, Khovanov,...

This isn't directly what you ask, but it's also worth noting that unknot detection is in $\text{NP} \cap \text{co-NP}$, that is, there are polynomial-checkable certificates that will show that either …
Dylan Thurston's user avatar
18 votes
3 answers
630 views

Classification of tangles?

Has anybody done any work on making a classification of low-complexity tangles, analogous to the work for knots and links? I expect most of the small ones to be rational, and those that aren't rationa …
Dylan Thurston's user avatar
49 votes
2 answers
4k views

Can knot diagrams be monotonically simplified using under moves?

It is well known that knot diagrams cannot be monotonically simplified using Reidemeister moves. For instance, the Goeritz unknot cannot be directly simplified. On the other hand, there is a stronger …
Dylan Thurston's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
238 views

What are the possible linking matrices of a quasi-positive link?

I was surprised recently to come across a 3-component link where the linking number of two of the components was negative. For a while I thought I had made a mistake, then I thought a little more and …
Dylan Thurston's user avatar
8 votes

What are the points of Spec(Vassiliev Invariants)?

The points of Spec $V$ live n a somewhat complicated completion of the space of knots (not formal linear combinations), but I think it's illuminating to think about the case of braids and their "Vassi …
Dylan Thurston's user avatar
10 votes

HOMFLY and homology; also superalgebras

Lots of good answers above, but the one that seems to be missing is what belongs in the third column for unspecialized HOMFLY. (As Geordie Williamson points out, Khovanov and Rozansky wrote two relat …
Dylan Thurston's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
579 views

Is the Lisca-Matic bound (aka slice-Bennequin bound) strictly stronger than the Bennequin bo...

The Bennequin bound [1] says that, for a transverse knot (or later link) $K$ in $S^3$, $$\mathrm{sl}(K) \le - \chi(\Sigma)$$ for any Seifert surface $\Sigma$ for $K$, where $\mathrm{sl}$ is the self-l …
Dylan Thurston's user avatar
6 votes

Do the results of (1/n)-surgery determine the link?...

If the orginal link $U_1 \cup U_2$ was hyperbolic, the answer is yes. For large enough $n$, $S^3 \setminus K(n)$ will also be hyperbolic, and will approach $S^3 \setminus (U_1 \cup U_2)$ in the Grom …
Dylan Thurston's user avatar
20 votes
Accepted

Does this knot invariant distinguish trefoil chiralities?

I'm very curious where this came up. In any case, the answer to the first question is yes, it does distinguish these trefoils; you found the minimal representatives. Let $a_0,\dots,a_{N-1}$ be the r …
Dylan Thurston's user avatar
12 votes
Accepted

Maslov index and Heegard Floer homology

Robert Lipshitz has the nicest formula, described in Corollary 4.3 of this paper: Robert Lipshitz, A cylindrical reformulation of Heegaard Floer homology, Geometry & Topology 10 (2006) 955–1096, DOI: …
Dylan Thurston's user avatar
25 votes
Accepted

Who thought that the Alexander polynomial was the only knot invariant of its kind?

The skein relation approach to knot invariants was not very popular before the Jones polynomial. The Alexander polynomial was thought of as coming from homology (of the cyclic branched cover); Conway …
Dylan Thurston's user avatar