Erica Shannon and Jennifer Townsend - Rational Tangles

Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
The Bracket Polynomial
Applications
Sources
Rational Tangles
Erica Shannon and Jennifer Townsend
July 17, 2008
Erica Shannon and Jennifer Townsend Rational Tangles
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Whats a rational tangle?
Tangles
Denition A tangle is analogous to a link except that it has free ends which are restricted to the boundary of a ball or box.
Figure: A tangle and a non-tangle.
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Rational tangles
Denition A rational tangle is a tangle made of two arcs that can be unwound completely while keeping the endpoints of the arcs on the boundary of the ball.
Figure: Various tangles, mostly rational.
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Construction of rational tangles

To make a rational tangle, take two arcs in a ball, choose any pair of endpoints and twist them, then repeat this a nite number of times with any pairs of endpoints.
Figure: Construction of a rational tangle.
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Canonical Form
Denition A rational tangle is said to be in canonical form provided that the tangle is alternating.
Figure: A tangle in canonical form and a tangle decidedly not in canonical form.
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Monomial Operations
Mirror Image
Figure: Mirror image of a rational tangle, denoted 1/a.
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Monomial Operations
Flips and Flypes
Figure: A horizontal ip.
Figure: A ype.
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Monomial Operations
Inverses : clockwise and counter-clockwise
Figure: Counter-clockwise inverse.
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Monomial Operations
Numerator Closure and Denominator Closure

Denition The numerator closure of a tangle is the knot/link made by connecting the North endpoints to each other and the South endpoints to each other. Similarly, the denominator closure is made by connecting the East endpoints and the West endpoints.
Figure: Numerator closure and denominator closure.

Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Binomial Operations
Addition
Figure: Tangle sum.
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Binomial Operations
Tangle Product
The tangle product ab = a + b.
Figure: Tangle product.
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Binomial Operations
Ramication
The ramication a, b = a + b.
Figure: Tangle ramication.
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Denition
Equivalence of Rational Tangles
Denition Two tangles are equivalent if they can be deformed to each other without moving the endpoints. Allowed deformation moves are analogous to Reidemeister moves.
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Applications
Nifty Equivalence Properties (I)
Figure: Two tangles with the same canonical form.
Two tangles are equivalent i they can be deformed to the same canonical form.
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Applications
Nifty Equivalence Properties (II)

Any rational tangle is equivalent to an alternating tangle.
Figure: A rational tangle with an extra pink kink and its equivalent alternating tangle.
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Calculation
Vector Notation for Tangles

A tangle can be represented in vector form (a1 , a2 , . . . , an ) where ai is the number of consecutive twists of a pair of endpoints.
Figure: Rational tangles and evolution of their associated vectors.
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Calculation
Continued Fractions of Tangles
The continued fraction of a basic tangle (denoted F (t)) corresponds to this set (a0 , a1 , ..., an ) of twists as
F (t) =
1 an +
1 an1 +
1 1 an2 + ...
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Calculation
An Example
Figure: A rational tangle and its associated fraction.
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Properties
Properties of Continued Fractions of Tangles
The continued fraction of a rational tangle T is related to its inverse and mirror image as follows F(1/T)=1/F(T) F(-T)=-F(T) Flypes do not aect a tangles continued fraction. The continued fraction is a rational tangle invariant.
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Conways Theorem
Conways1 Theorem
Theorem If T1 and T2 are basic tangles, then F (T1 ) = F (T2 ) implies that T1 is ambient isotopic to T2 .
Squaredancer Extraordinaire
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Calculation
The Bracket Polynomial for Rational Tangles

Weve already dened a bracket polynomial for links and knots. The bracket polynomial for tangles is similar . . .
J =A
+ A1 ||
. . . but we end up with a Laurent polynomial with unresolved terms || and = .
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Calculation
The Bracket Polynomial for Rational Tangles

So starting with J =A + A1 ||
we dene (T ) and (T ) for some tangle T by T = (T ) || + (T ) = . So for J, we have (J) = A1 and (J) = A.
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Properties
A Bracket Polynomial , Theorem!
Theorem RT (A) = is an invariant of tangles. (T ) (T )
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Magic
In Which Everything is Illuminated!
Now take RT (A) and replace A, for magical reasons, with
i.
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Magic
In Which Everything is Illuminated!
Now take RT (A) and replace A, for magical reasons, with Theorem (Goldman and Kauman) F (T ) = iRT ( i). Remember, RT (A) =
(T ) (T ) .
i.
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
DNA as a Rational Tangle
Purely Applicable: tangled DNA
Figure: DNA is really a series of a zillion tangles, many of which are rational!
Introduction
Operations
Equivalence
Continued Fractions
Applications
Sources
Sources
C. Cerf, A Note on the Tangle Model for DNA Recombination, Bulletin of Mathematical Biology (1998), pp 67-78. I.K. Darcy, A rational tangle primer, Available: http://www.knotplot.com . J.R. Goldman, L.H. Kauman, Rational tangles, Adv. in Appl. Math. 18 (1997), no. 3, 300-332. L.H. Kauman and S. Lambropoulou. Knotting, Linking, and Folding Geometric Objects in R3 . AMS Special Session on Knotting and Unknotting. Las Vegas, Nevada. 21 Apr. (2001), pp 223-260. J.C. Misra and S. Mukherjee, Mathematical Modelling of DNA Knots and Links. Biomathematics: modelling and simulation. World Scientic (2006), pp 195-224. Wikipedia. Y. Saka, M. Vazquez, TangleSolve: topological analysis of site-specic recombination, Bioinformatics, Available: http://bio.math.berkeley.edu/TangleSolve/tmodel/tmodel.html , (2002) 18:1011-1012

Erica Shannon and Jennifer Townsend - Rational Tangles

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Erica Shannon and Jennifer Townsend - Rational Tangles

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Introduction

The Bracket Polynomial

July 17, 2008