arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Louis H. Kauffman.
The notion of a pseudoknot is defined as an equivalence class of knot diagrams that may be missing some crossing information. We provide here a topological invariant schema for pseudoknots and their relatives, 4-valent rigid vertex spatial graphs and singular knots, that is obtained by replacing unknown crossings or vertices by rational tangles.
We call a Delta Diagram any diagram of a knot or link whose regions (including the unbounded one) have 3, 4, or 5 sides. We prove that any knot or link admits a delta diagram. We define and estimate combinatorial link invariants stemming from this definition.
This paper is an exposition of the relationship between Witten's Chern-Simons functional integral and the theory of Vassiliev Invariants of knots and links in three dimensional space. We conceptualize the functional integral in terms of equivalence classes of functionals of gauge fields and we do not use measure theory. This approach makes it possible to discuss the mathematics intrinsic to the functional integral rigorously and without functional integration. Applications to loop quantum gravity are discussed. We thank the organizers of the Conference on 60 Years of Yang-Mills Gauge Field Theories (25 to 28 May 2015) for the invitation and opportunity to speak about these ideas in Singapore.
This paper studies rotational virtual knot theory and its relationship with quantum link invariants. Every quantum link invariant for classical knots and links extends to an invariant of rotational virtual knots and links. The paper sets up the background virtual knot theory, defines rotational virtual knot theory, studies an extension of the bracket polynomial and the Manturov parity bracket for rotationals. We give examples of links that are not detected by the bracket polynomial but are detected by the extended parity bracket. Then the general frameworks for oriented and unoriented quantum invariants are introduced and formulated for rotational virtual links. The paper ends with a section on quantum link invariants in the Hopf algebra framework where one can see the naturality of using regular homotopy combined with virtual crossings (permutation operators), as they occur significantly in the category associated with a Hopf algebra. We show how this approach via categories and quantum algebras illuminates the structure of invariants that we have already described via state summations. In particular, we show that a certain non-trivial link L has trivial functorial image. This means that this link is not detected by any quantum invariant formulated as outlined in this paper. We show earlier in the paper that the link L is a non-trivial rotational link using the parity bracket. These calculations with the diagrammatic images in quantum algebra show how this category forms a higher level language for understanding rotational virtual knots and links. There are inherent limitations to studying rotational virtual knots by quantum algebra alone.
This paper concentrates on relationships of formal systems with biology. The paper is based on previous papers by the author. We have freely used texts of those papers where the formulations are of use, and we have extended the concepts and discussions herein considerably beyond the earlier work. We concentrate on formal systems not only for the sake of showing how there is a fundamental mathematical structure to biology, but also to consider and reconsider philosophical and phenomenological points of view in relation to natural science and mathematics. The relationship with phenomenology comes about in the questions that arise about the nature of the observer in relation to the observed that arise in philosophy, but also in science in the very act of determining the context and models upon which it shall be based.We examine the schema behind the reproduction of DNA. The DNA molecule consists of two interwound strands, the Watson Strand (W) and the Crick Strand (C). The two strands are bonded to each other via a backbone of base-pairings and these bonds can be broken by certain enzymes present in the cell. In reproduction of DNA the bonds between the two strands are broken and the two strands then acquire the needed complementary base molecules from the cellular environment to reconstitute each a separate copy of the DNA. At this level the situation can be described by a symbolism like this. DNA = -------> --------> = = DNA DNA. Here E stands for the environment of the cell. The first arrow denotes the separation of the DNA into the two strands. The second arrow denotes the action between the bare strands and the environment that leads to the production of the two DNA molecules. The paper considers and compares many formalisms for self-replication, including aspects of quantum formalism and the Temperley-Lieb algebra.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss how topology and geometry provide, in many instances, the connective tissue that enables logical comprehension. We illustrate this theme with many examples including Venn diagrams, knot diagrams, knot-logical diagrams and an arrow of reference that elucidates self-reference and Goedelian self-reference.
Knotted and tangled structures frequently appear in physical fields, but so do mechanisms for untying them. To understand how this untying works, we simulate the behavior of 1,458 superfluid vortex knots of varying complexity and scale in the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Without exception, we find that the knots untie efficiently and completely, and do so within a predictable time range. We also observe that the centerline helicity -- a measure of knotting and writhing -- is partially preserved even as the knots untie. Moreover, we find that the topological pathways of untying knots have simple descriptions in terms of minimal 2D knot diagrams, and tend to concentrate in states along specific maximally chiral pathways.
The paper contains an essentially self-contained treatment of Khovanov homology, Khovanov-Lee homology as well as the Rasmussen invariant for virtual knots and virtual knot cobordisms which directly applies to classical knot and classical knot cobordisms. To do so, we give an alternate formulation for the Manturov definition of Khovanov homology for virtual knots and links with arbitrary coefficients. This approach uses cut loci on the knot diagram to induce a conjugation operator in the Frobenius algebra. We then discuss the implications of the maps induced in the aforementioned theory to the universal Frobenius algebra for virtual knots. Next we show how one can apply the Karoubi envelope approach of Bar-Natan and Morrison on abstract link diagrams with cross cuts to construct the canonical generators of the Khovanov-Lee homology. Using these canonical generators we derive a generalization of the Rasmussen invariant for virtual knot cobordisms and furthermore generalize Rasmussen's result on the slice genus for positive knots to the case of positive virtual knots. It should also be noted that this generalization of the Rasmussen invariant provides an easy to compute obstruction to knot cobordisms in $S_g \times I \times I$ in the sense of Turaev.
This paper shows how the Formal Knot Theory state model for the Alexander-Conway polynomial is related to Knot Floer Homology. In particular we prove a parity result about the states in this model that clarifies certain relationships of the model with Knot Floer Homology.
In this paper we first investigate minimal sufficient sets of colors for p=11 and 13. For odd prime p and any p-colorable link L with non-zero determinant, we give alternative proofs of mincol_p L \geq 5 for p \geq 11 and mincol_p L \geq 6 for p \geq 17. We elaborate on equivalence classes of sets of distinct colors (on a given modulus) and prove that there are two such classes of five colors modulo 11, and only one such class of five colors modulo 13. Finally, we give a positive answer to a question raised by Nakamura, Nakanishi, and Satoh concerning an inequality involving crossing numbers. We show it is an equality only for the trefoil and for the figure-eight knots.
This paper is a concise introduction to virtual knot theory, coupled with a list of research problems in this field.
This paper defines a theory of cobordism for virtual knots and studies this theory for standard and rotational virtual knots and links. Non-trivial examples of virtual slice knots are given. Determinations of the four-ball genus of positive virtual knots are given using the results of a companion paper by the author and Heather Dye and Aaron Kaestner. Problems related to band-passing are explained, and a theory of isotopy of virtual surfaces is formulated in terms of a generalization of the Yoshikawa moves.
This paper gives infinitely many examples of unknot diagrams that are hard, in the sense that the diagrams need to be made more complicated by Reidemeister moves before they can be simplified. In order to construct these diagrams, we prove theorems characterizing when the numerator of the sum of two rational tangles is an unknot. The key theorem shows that the numerator of the sum of two rational tangles [P/Q] and [R/S] is unknotted if and only if PS + QR has absolute value equal to 1. The paper uses these results in studying processive DNA recombination, finding minimal size unknot diagrams, generalizing to collapses to knots as well as to unknots, and in finding unknots with arbirarily high complexity. The paper is self-contained, with a review of the theory of rational tangles and a last section on relationships of the theme of the paper with other aspects of topology and number theory. The present version of the paper contains a correction to Figure 22 of the previous (and published) version, a small expansion to the section on Farey fractions, and an updated reference to the paper "Unknotting unknots" by Henrich and Kauffman.
This paper describes a polynomial invariant of virtual knots that is defined in terms of an integer labeling of the virtual knot diagram. This labeling is seen to derive from an essentially unique structure of affine flat biquandle for flat virtual diagrams. The invariant is discussed in detail with many examples,including its relation to previous invariants of this type and we show how to construct Vassiliev invariants from the same data.
We discuss how basic Clifford algebra and indeed all of matrix algebra and matrix representations of finite groups comes from Iterants: very elementary processes such as an alternation of plus and minus one ...+-+-+- .... One can think of the square root of minus one as a temporal iterant, a product of an A and a B where the A is the ...+-+-+-... and the B is a time shift operator. We have AA = BB =1 and AB + BA = 0, whence (AB)(AB) = -1. Clifford algebra is at the base of the (mathematical) world and the Fermions are composed of these things. We discuss the diagrammatics and topology of Majorana Fermions and we discuss the structure of the Dirac equation and how nilpotent and Majorana operators arise naturally in this context. We end the paper with an expression in split quaternions (in iterant form) for the the Majorana Dirac equation in one dimension of time and three dimensions of space.
For any link and for any modulus $m$ we introduce an equivalence relation on the set of non-trivial m-colorings of the link (an m-coloring has values in Z/mZ). Given a diagram of the link, the equivalence class of a non-trivial m-coloring is formed by each assignment of colors to the arcs of the diagram that is obtained from the former coloring by a permutation of the colors in the arcs which preserves the coloring condition at each crossing. This requirement implies topological invariance of the equivalence classes. We show that for a prime modulus the number of equivalence classes depends on the modulus and on the rank of the coloring matrix (with respect to this modulus).
This paper introduces the concept of a generic finite set, and points out that a consistent and significant interpretation of the grossone notation of Yarolslav D. Sergeyev is that of a generic natural number. This means that the grossone is not itself a natural number, yet it can be treated as one and used in the generic expression of finite sets and finite formulas, giving a new power to algebra and algorithms that embody this usage. We further consider the concept of infinity in categories. An object A in a given category C is said to be infinite relative to that category if and only if there is a injection from A to A in C that is not a surjection. In the category of sets this recovers the usual notion of infinity. In other categories, an object may be non-infinite (whence finite) while its underlying set (if it has one) is infinite. The computational methodology due to Yarolslav D. Sergeyev for executing numerical calculations with infinities and infinitesimals is considered from this categorical point of view.
This paper is an introduction to diagrammatic methods for representing quantum processes and quantum computing. We review basic notions for quantum information and quantum computing. We discuss topological diagrams and some issues about using category theory in representing quantum computing and teleportation. We analyze very carefully the diagrammatic meaning of the usual representation of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, and we show how it can be generalized to associate to each composition of unitary transformations a "laboratory quantum diagram" such that particles moving though the many alternate paths in this diagram will mimic the quantum process represented by the composition of unitary transformations. This is a finite dimensional way to think about the Feynman Path Integral. We call our representation result the Path Theorem. Then we go back to the basics of networks and matrices and show how elements of quantum measurement can be represented with network diagrams.