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arXiv · 2309.10163

A faster direct sampling algorithm for equilateral closed polygons and the probability of knotting

Jason Cantarella·Henrik Schumacher·Clayton Shonkwiler
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Abstract

We present a faster direct sampling algorithm for random equilateral closed polygons in three-dimensional space. This method improves on the moment polytope sampling algorithm of Cantarella, Duplantier, Shonkwiler, and Uehara (2016) and has (expected) time per sample quadratic in the number of edges in the polygon. We use our new sampling method and a new code for computing invariants based on the Alexander polynomial to investigate the probability of finding unknots among equilateral closed polygons.

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Jason Cantarella, Henrik Schumacher, Clayton Shonkwiler. 2023-09-18. A faster direct sampling algorithm for equilateral closed polygons and the probability of knotting. https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121%2Fad54a8

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