arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Blake K Winter.
We give a method for constructing an interactive art piece which illustrates two different definitions of the braid groups, along with their faithful action on the free group. The box also demonstrates how all motions of points in the plane can be realized by motions in a single T-shaped subspace of the plane. This helps students and those who are not specialists in algebraic topology to understand these important topological objects.
For any virtual link, a class of new links can be defined called stacks, in which copies of the virtual link are placed on top of one another. The resulting virtual link depends only on the virtual isotopy class of the original link, and the fundamental group of such a link may be used to detect whether the link is nontrivial and whether it is nonclassical in some cases. We show that the groups constructed using this method are sufficient to distinguish all the Kishino knots from the unknot and from one another, as well as calculating their Jones polynomials.
Satoh has defined a map from virtual knots to ribbon surfaces embedded in $S^4$. Herein, we generalize this map to virtual $m$-links, and use this to construct generalizations of welded and extended welded knots to higher dimensions. This also allows us to construct two new geometric pictures of virtual $m$-links, including 1-links.
For a virtual $n$-link $K$, we define a new virtual link $VD(K)$, which is invariant under virtual equivalence of $K$. The Dehn space of $VD(K)$, which we denote $DD(K)$, therefore has a homotopy type which is an invariant of $K$. We show that the quandle and even the fundamental group of this space are able to detect the virtual trefoil. We also consider applications to higher-dimensional virtual links.
We begin with a brief summary of issues encountered involving causality in quantum theory, placing careful emphasis on the assumptions involved in results such as the EPR paradox and Bell's inequality. We critique some solutions to the resulting paradox, including Rovelli's relational quantum mechanics and the many-worlds interpretation. We then discuss how a spacetime manifold could come about on the classical level out of a quantum system, by constructing a space with a topology out of the algebra of observables, and show that even with an hypothesis of superluminal causation enforcing consistent measurements of entangled states, a causal cone structure arises on the classical level. Finally, we discuss the possibility that causality as understood in classical relativistic physics may be an emergent symmetry which does not hold on the quantum level.