Dimensional reduction for energies with linear growth involving the bending moment

A Γ-convergence analysis is used to perform a 3D–2D dimension reduction of variational problems with linear growth. The adopted scaling gives rise to a nonlinear membrane model which, because of the presence of higher order external loadings inducing a bending moment, may depend on the average in the transverse direction of a Cosserat vector field, as well as on the deformation of the mid-plane. The assumption of linear growth on the energy leads to an asymptotic analysis in the spaces of measures and of functions with bounded variation.     

Counting alternating knots by genus

It is shown that the number of alternating knots of given genus g>1 grows as a polynomial of degree 6g−4 in the crossing number. The leading coefficient of the polynomial, which depends on the parity of the crossing number, is related to planar trivalent graphs with a Bieulerian path. The rate of growth of the number of such graphs is estimated.     

The non-linear Saint-Venant problem of the torsion,stretching and bending of a naturally twisted rod

Problems on large stretching, torsional and bending deformations of a naturally twisted rod, loaded with end forces and moments, are considered from the point of view of the non-linear three-dimensional theory of elasticity. Particular solutions of the equations of elastostatics are found, which are two-parameter families of finite deformations and which possess the property that, for these deformations, the initial system of three-dimensional non-linear equations reduces to a system of equations with two independent variables. The use of these equations enables one to reduce certain Saint-Venant problems for a naturally twisted rod to two-dimensional non-linear boundary-value problems for a planar domain in the form of the cross-section of a rod. Different formulations of the two-dimensional boundary-value problem for the cross-section are proposed, which differ in the choice of the unknown functions. A non-linear problem of the torsion and stretching of a circular cylinder with helical anisotropy, which is reduced to ordinary differential equations, is considered as a special case.     

Obtaining graph knots by twisting unknots

Let K be a knot in the 3-sphere S³ and D a disk in S³ meeting K transversely more than once in the interior. For nontriviality we assume that |D∩K|⩾2 over all isotopies of K in S³−∂D. Let K_D,n (⊂S³) be a knot obtained from K by n twisting along the disk D. We prove that if K is a trivial knot and K_D,n is a graph knot, then |n|⩽1 or K and D form a special pair which we call an “exceptional pair”. As a corollary, if (K,D) is not an exceptional pair, then by twisting unknot K more than once (in the positive or the negative direction) along the disk D, we always obtain a knot with positive Gromov volume. We will also show that there are infinitely many graph knots each of which is obtained from a trivial knot by twisting, but its companion knot cannot be obtained in such a manner.     

Symmetric knots and the cabling conjecture

Dedicated to Professor G. Nöbeling on his eightyfifth birthday     

Periodic knots and the skein polynomial

This research was supported by NSERC-No. A4034 (Canada) and Polish scientific grant RP 1.10.     

Virtual knots and links

This paper is an introduction to the subject of virtual knot theory and presents a discussion of some new specific theorems about virtual knots. The new results are as follows: Using a 3-dimensional topology approach, we prove that if a connected sum of two virtual knots K ₁ and K ₂ is trivial, then so are both K ₁ and K ₂. We establish an algorithm for recognizing virtual links that is based on the Haken-Matveev technique. Published in Russian in Trudy Matematicheskogo Instituta imeni V.A. Steklova, 2006, Vol. 252, pp. 114–133.     

Constrained approximation by splines with free knots

In this paper, a method that combines shape preservation and least squares approximation by splines with free knots is developed. Besides the coefficients of the spline a subset of the knot sequence, the so-calledfree knots, is included in the optimization process resulting in a nonlinear least squares problem in both the coefficients and the knots. The original problem, a special case of aconstrained semi-linear least squares problem, is reduced to a problem that has only the knots of the spline as variables. The reduced problem is solved by a generalized Gauss-Newton method. Special emphasise is given to the efficient computation of the residual function and its Jacobian. Dedicated to our colleague and teacher Prof. Dr. J. W. Schmidt on the occasion of his 65th birthday Research of the first author was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under grant Schm 968/2-1,2-2.     

Computing the girth of knots

We introduce a method to compute the girth of knots, defined by Hernndez and Lin, using the Jones and BrandtLickorishMillettHo polynomial. We determine the girth of all knots up to 10 crossings.     

Knotoids and knots in the thickened torus

We study the relationship between knotoids and knots in the direct product of the two-dimensional torus and an interval. Each knotoid on the sphere can be lifted to a knot of geometric degree 1 in the thickened torus. We prove that lifting is a bijection on the set of prime knotoids of complexity greater than 1.     

Least squares approximation by splines with free knots

Suppose we are given noisy data which are considered to be perturbed values of a smooth, univariate function. In order to approximate these data in the least squares sense, a linear combination of B-splines is used where the tradeoff between smoothness and closeness of the fit is controlled by a smoothing term which regularizes the least squares problem and guarantees unique solvability independent of the position of knots. Moreover, a subset of the knot sequence which defines the B-splines, the so-calledfree knots, is included in the optimization process.The resulting constrained least squares problem which is linear in the spline coefficients but nonlinear in the free knots is reduced to a problem that has only the free knots as variables. The reduced problem is solved by a generalized Gauss-Newton method. The method developed can be combined with a knot removal strategy in order to obtain an approximating spline with as few parameters as possible.Dedicated to Professor Dr.-Ing. habil. Dr. h.c. Helmut Heinrich on the occasion of his 90th birthdayResearch of the second author was partly supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under grant Schm 968/2-1.