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Knot Energy
In physical knot theory, a knot energy is a functional on the space of all knot conformations. A conformation of a knot is a particular embedding of a circle into three-dimensional space. Depending on the needs of the energy function, the space of conformations is restricted to a sufficiently nicely behaved class. For example, one may consider only polygonal circles or ''C''2 functions. A property of the functional often requires that evolution of the knot under gradient descent does not change knot type. Electrical charge The most common type of knot energy comes from the intuition of the knot as electrically charged. Coulomb's law states that two electric charges of the same sign will repel each other as the inverse square of the distance. Thus the knot will evolve under gradient descent according to the electric potential to an ideal configuration that minimizes the electrostatic energy. Naively defined, the integral for the energy will diverge and a regularization tr ...
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Physical Knot Theory
Physical knot theory is the study of mathematical models of knotting phenomena, often motivated by considerations from biology, chemistry, and physics (Kauffman 1991). Physical knot theory is used to study how geometric and topological characteristics of filamentary structures, such as magnetic flux tubes, vortex filaments, polymers, DNAs, influence their physical properties and functions. It has applications in various fields of science, including topological fluid dynamics, structural complexity analysis and DNA biology (Kauffman 1991, Ricca 1998). Traditional knot theory models a knot as a simple closed loop in three-dimensional space. Such a knot has no thickness or physical properties such as tension or friction Friction is the force resisting the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, and material elements sliding against each other. Types of friction include dry, fluid, lubricated, skin, and internal -- an incomplete list. The study of t .... Physical kn ...
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Functional (mathematics)
In mathematics, a functional is a certain type of function. The exact definition of the term varies depending on the subfield (and sometimes even the author). * In linear algebra, it is synonymous with a linear form, which is a linear mapping from a vector space V into its field of scalars (that is, it is an element of the dual space V^*) "Let ''E'' be a free module over a commutative ring ''A''. We view ''A'' as a free module of rank 1 over itself. By the dual module ''E''∨ of ''E'' we shall mean the module Hom(''E'', ''A''). Its elements will be called functionals. Thus a functional on ''E'' is an ''A''-linear map ''f'' : ''E'' → ''A''." * In functional analysis and related fields, it refers to a mapping from a space X into the field of real or complex numbers. "A numerical function ''f''(''x'') defined on a normed linear space ''R'' will be called a ''functional''. A functional ''f''(''x'') is said to be ''linear'' if ''f''(α''x'' + β''y'') = α''f''(''x'') + β ...
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Well-behaved
In mathematics, when a mathematical phenomenon runs counter to some intuition, then the phenomenon is sometimes called pathological. On the other hand, if a phenomenon does not run counter to intuition, it is sometimes called well-behaved or nice. These terms are sometimes useful in mathematical research and teaching, but there is no strict mathematical definition of pathological or well-behaved. In analysis A classic example of a pathology is the Weierstrass function, a function that is continuous everywhere but differentiable nowhere. The sum of a differentiable function and the Weierstrass function is again continuous but nowhere differentiable; so there are at least as many such functions as differentiable functions. In fact, using the Baire category theorem, one can show that continuous functions are generically nowhere differentiable. Such examples were deemed pathological when they were first discovered. To quote Henri Poincaré: Since Poincaré, nowhere diffe ...
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Gradient Descent
Gradient descent is a method for unconstrained mathematical optimization. It is a first-order iterative algorithm for minimizing a differentiable multivariate function. The idea is to take repeated steps in the opposite direction of the gradient (or approximate gradient) of the function at the current point, because this is the direction of steepest descent. Conversely, stepping in the direction of the gradient will lead to a trajectory that maximizes that function; the procedure is then known as ''gradient ascent''. It is particularly useful in machine learning for minimizing the cost or loss function. Gradient descent should not be confused with local search algorithms, although both are iterative methods for optimization. Gradient descent is generally attributed to Augustin-Louis Cauchy, who first suggested it in 1847. Jacques Hadamard independently proposed a similar method in 1907. Its convergence properties for non-linear optimization problems were first studied by Has ...
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Electrically Charged
Electric charge (symbol ''q'', sometimes ''Q'') is a physical property of matter that causes it to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field. Electric charge can be ''positive'' or ''negative''. Like charges repel each other and unlike charges attract each other. An object with no net charge is referred to as electrically neutral. Early knowledge of how charged substances interact is now called classical electrodynamics, and is still accurate for problems that do not require consideration of quantum effects. In an isolated system, the total charge stays the same - the amount of positive charge minus the amount of negative charge does not change over time. Electric charge is carried by subatomic particles. In ordinary matter, negative charge is carried by electrons, and positive charge is carried by the protons in the nuclei of atoms. If there are more electrons than protons in a piece of matter, it will have a negative charge, if there are fewer it will have a p ...
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Coulomb's Law
Coulomb's inverse-square law, or simply Coulomb's law, is an experimental scientific law, law of physics that calculates the amount of force (physics), force between two electric charge, electrically charged particles at rest. This electric force is conventionally called the ''electrostatic force'' or Coulomb force. Although the law was known earlier, it was first published in 1785 by French physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb. Coulomb's law was essential to the development of the classical electromagnetism, theory of electromagnetism and maybe even its starting point, as it allowed meaningful discussions of the amount of electric charge in a particle. The law states that the magnitude, or absolute value, of the attractive or repulsive electrostatic force between two point Electric charge, charges is directly proportional to the product of the magnitudes of their charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Coulomb discovered that bodies with ...
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Inverse-square Law
In science, an inverse-square law is any scientific law stating that the observed "intensity" of a specified physical quantity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source of that physical quantity. The fundamental cause for this can be understood as geometric dilution corresponding to point-source radiation into three-dimensional space. Radar energy expands during both the signal transmission and the reflected return, so the inverse square for both paths means that the radar will receive energy according to the inverse fourth power of the range. To prevent dilution of energy while propagating a signal, certain methods can be used such as a waveguide, which acts like a canal does for water, or how a gun barrel restricts hot gas expansion to one dimension in order to prevent loss of energy transfer to a bullet. Formula In mathematical notation the inverse square law can be expressed as an intensity (I) varying as a function of distance (d) from s ...
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Electric Potential
Electric potential (also called the ''electric field potential'', potential drop, the electrostatic potential) is defined as electric potential energy per unit of electric charge. More precisely, electric potential is the amount of work (physics), work needed to move a test charge from a reference point to a specific point in a static electric field. The test charge used is small enough that disturbance to the field is unnoticeable, and its motion across the field is supposed to proceed with negligible acceleration, so as to avoid the test charge acquiring kinetic energy or producing radiation. By definition, the electric potential at the reference point is zero units. Typically, the reference point is Earth (electricity), earth or a point at infinity, although any point can be used. In classical electrostatics, the electrostatic field is a vector quantity expressed as the gradient of the electrostatic potential, which is a scalar (physics), scalar quantity denoted by or occasi ...
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Self-intersection
In mathematics, intersection theory is one of the main branches of algebraic geometry, where it gives information about the intersection of two subvarieties of a given variety. The theory for varieties is older, with roots in Bézout's theorem on curves and elimination theory. On the other hand, the topological theory more quickly reached a definitive form. There is yet an ongoing development of intersection theory. Currently the main focus is on: virtual fundamental cycles, quantum intersection rings, Gromov–Witten theory and the extension of intersection theory from schemes to stacks. Topological intersection form For a connected oriented manifold M of dimension 2n the intersection form is defined on the n-th cohomology group (what is usually called the 'middle dimension') by the evaluation of the cup product on the fundamental class /math> in H_(M,\partial M). Stated precisely, there is a bilinear form :\lambda_M \colon H^n(M,\partial M) \times H^n(M,\partial M)\to ...
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Jun O'Hara
Jun O'Hara, legally named , is a Japanese mathematician who works on the fields of low-dimensional topology and knot theory. He is a professor at Chiba University. He is famous for his discovery of Möbius energy, a type of knot energy. He was born on 29 March 1963 in Hiroshima, Japan. He was a PhD student of Takashi Tsuboi at the University of Tokyo. Selected publications *''Energy of knots and conformal geometry''. World Scientific, Singapore, (2003). *"Energy of a knot", ''Topology'' v. 30 n. 2, pp. 241–247 (1991) See also *Knot energy In physical knot theory, a knot energy is a functional on the space of all knot conformations. A conformation of a knot is a particular embedding of a circle into three-dimensional space. Depending on the needs of the energy function, the space ... References {{DEFAULTSORT:OHara, Jun 1963 births People from Hiroshima Scientists from Hiroshima University of Tokyo alumni Topologists Living people 20th-century Japanese math ...
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Möbius Energy
In mathematics, the Möbius energy of a knot is a particular knot energy, i.e., a functional on the space of knots. It was discovered by Jun O'Hara, who demonstrated that the energy blows up as the knot's strands get close to one another. This is a useful property because it prevents self-intersection and ensures the result under gradient descent is of the same knot type. Invariance of Möbius energy under Möbius transformations was demonstrated by Michael Freedman, Zheng-Xu He, and Zhenghan Wang (1994) who used it to show the existence of a C^ energy minimizer in each isotopy class of a prime knot. They also showed the minimum energy of any knot conformation is achieved by a round circle. Conjecturally, there is no energy minimizer for composite knots. Robert B. Kusner and John M. Sullivan have done computer experiments with a discretized version of the Möbius energy and concluded that there should be no energy minimizer for the knot sum of two trefoils (although this ...
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Annals Of Mathematics
The ''Annals of Mathematics'' is a mathematical journal published every two months by Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study. History The journal was established as ''The Analyst'' in 1874 and with Joel E. Hendricks as the founding editor-in-chief. It was "intended to afford a medium for the presentation and analysis of any and all questions of interest or importance in pure and applied Mathematics, embracing especially all new and interesting discoveries in theoretical and practical astronomy, mechanical philosophy, and engineering". It was published in Des Moines, Iowa, and was the earliest American mathematics journal to be published continuously for more than a year or two. This incarnation of the journal ceased publication after its tenth year, in 1883, giving as an explanation Hendricks' declining health, but Hendricks made arrangements to have it taken over by new management, and it was continued from March 1884 as the ''Annals of Mathematics''. T ...
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