Workshop
Flat ribbons for link diagrams
- Elizabeth Denne (Washington & Lee University, Lexington, USA)
- John Sullivan and Nancy Wrinkle
Abstract
Knots and links are modeled as ribbons immersed in the plane. This is a 2-dimensional analogue of thick knots and the ropelength problem. This talk will introduce the idea of a flat ribbon link and give examples of 'tight' ribbon length knots. It turns out there are some surprising technicalities involved - moving from 3 to 2 dimensions does not necessarily simplify the mathematics.