This book is an introduction to the remarkable work of Vaughan Jones and Victor Vassiliev on knot and link invariants and its recent modifications and generalizations, including a mathematical treatment of Jones-Witten invariants. The mathematical prerequisites are minimal compared to other monographs in this area. Numerous figures and problems make this book suitable as a graduate level course text or for self-study.
Rolfsen's beautiful book on knots and links can be read by anyone, from beginner to expert, who wants to learn about knot theory. Beginners find an inviting introduction to the elements of topology, emphasizing the tools needed for understanding knots, the fundamental group and van Kampen's theorem, for example, which are then applied to concrete problems, such as computing knot groups. For experts, Rolfsen explains advanced topics, such as the connections between knot theory and surgery and how they are useful to understanding three-manifolds. Besides providing a guide to understanding knot theory, the book offers 'practical' training. After reading it, you will be able to do many things: compute presentations of knot groups, Alexander polynomials, and other invariants; perform surgery on three-manifolds; and visualize knots and their complements.It is characterized by its hands-on approach and emphasis on a visual, geometric understanding. Rolfsen offers invaluable insight and strikes a perfect balance between giving technical details and offering informal explanations. The illustrations are superb, and a wealth of examples are included. Now back in print by the AMS, the book is still a standard reference in knot theory. It is written in a remarkable style that makes it useful for both beginners and researchers. Particularly noteworthy is the table of knots and links at the end. This volume is an excellent introduction to the topic and is suitable as a textbook for a course in knot theory or 3-manifolds. Other key books of interest on this topic available from the AMS are ""The Shoelace Book: A Mathematical Guide to the Best (and Worst) Ways to Lace your Shoes"" and ""The Knot Book.""
A selection of topics which graduate students have found to be a successful introduction to the field, employing three distinct techniques: geometric topology manoeuvres, combinatorics, and algebraic topology. Each topic is developed until significant results are achieved and each chapter ends with exercises and brief accounts of the latest research. What may reasonably be referred to as knot theory has expanded enormously over the last decade and, while the author describes important discoveries throughout the twentieth century, the latest discoveries such as quantum invariants of 3-manifolds as well as generalisations and applications of the Jones polynomial are also included, presented in an easily intelligible style. Readers are assumed to have knowledge of the basic ideas of the fundamental group and simple homology theory, although explanations throughout the text are numerous and well-done. Written by an internationally known expert in the field, this will appeal to graduate students, mathematicians and physicists with a mathematical background wishing to gain new insights in this area.
This book provides an introduction to hyperbolic geometry in dimension three, with motivation and applications arising from knot theory. Hyperbolic geometry was first used as a tool to study knots by Riley and then Thurston in the 1970s. By the 1980s, combining work of Mostow and Prasad with Gordon and Luecke, it was known that a hyperbolic structure on a knot complement in the 3-sphere gives a complete knot invariant. However, it remains a difficult problem to relate the hyperbolic geometry of a knot to other invariants arising from knot theory. In particular, it is difficult to determine hyperbolic geometric information from a knot diagram, which is classically used to describe a knot. This textbook provides background on these problems, and tools to determine hyperbolic information on knots. It also includes results and state-of-the art techniques on hyperbolic geometry and knot theory to date. The book was written to be interactive, with many examples and exercises. Some important results are left to guided exercises. The level is appropriate for graduate students with a basic background in algebraic topology, particularly fundamental groups and covering spaces. Some experience with some differential topology and Riemannian geometry will also be helpful.
Bringing together many results previously scattered throughout the research literature into a single framework, this work concentrates on the application of the author's algebraic theory of surgery to provide a unified treatment of the invariants of codimension 2 embeddings, generalizing the Alexander polynomials and Seifert forms of classical knot theory.
Knots are familiar objects. Yet the mathematical theory of knots quickly leads to deep results in topology and geometry. This work offers an introduction to this theory, starting with our understanding of knots. It presents the applications of knot theory to modern chemistry, biology and physics.
Due to the strong appeal and wide use of this monograph, it is now available in its third revised edition. The monograph gives a systematic treatment of 3-dimensional topological quantum field theories (TQFTs) based on the work of the author with N. Reshetikhin and O. Viro. This subject was inspired by the discovery of the Jones polynomial of knots and the Witten-Chern-Simons field theory. On the algebraic side, the study of 3-dimensional TQFTs has been influenced by the theory of braided categories and the theory of quantum groups. The book is divided into three parts. Part I presents a construction of 3-dimensional TQFTs and 2-dimensional modular functors from so-called modular categories. This gives a vast class of knot invariants and 3-manifold invariants as well as a class of linear representations of the mapping class groups of surfaces. In Part II the technique of 6j-symbols is used to define state sum invariants of 3-manifolds. Their relation to the TQFTs constructed in Part I is established via the theory of shadows. Part III provides constructions of modular categories, based on quantum groups and skein modules of tangles in the 3-space. This fundamental contribution to topological quantum field theory is accessible to graduate students in mathematics and physics with knowledge of basic algebra and topology. It is an indispensable source for everyone who wishes to enter the forefront of this fascinating area at the borderline of mathematics and physics. Contents: Invariants of graphs in Euclidean 3-space and of closed 3-manifolds Foundations of topological quantum field theory Three-dimensional topological quantum field theory Two-dimensional modular functors 6j-symbols Simplicial state sums on 3-manifolds Shadows of manifolds and state sums on shadows Constructions of modular categories
More recently, Khovanov introduced link homology as a generalization of the Jones polynomial to homology of chain complexes and Ozsvath and Szabo developed Heegaard-Floer homology, that lifts the Alexander polynomial. These two significantly different theories are closely related and the dependencies are the object of intensive study. These ideas mark the beginning of a new era in knot theory that includes relationships with four-dimensional problems and the creation of new forms of algebraic topology relevant to knot theory. The theory of skein modules is an older development also having its roots in Jones discovery. Another significant and related development is the theory of virtual knots originated independently by Kauffman and by Goussarov Polyak and Viro in the '90s. All these topics and their relationships are the subject of the survey papers in this book.
This book is a survey of current topics in the mathematical theory of knots. For a mathematician, a knot is a closed loop in 3-dimensional space: imagine knotting an extension cord and then closing it up by inserting its plug into its outlet. Knot theory is of central importance in pure and applied mathematics, as it stands at a crossroads of topology, combinatorics, algebra, mathematical physics and biochemistry. * Survey of mathematical knot theory * Articles by leading world authorities * Clear exposition, not over-technical * Accessible to readers with undergraduate background in mathematics
