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REV: Twists, Tangles and Topology
Posted:
Sep 10, 1992 10:29 AM
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Watson, Andrew, Twists, tangles, and topology, New Scientist (5 October
1991) 42 46.
Describes recent progress in the mathematical theory of knots in
non-technical language. Notes the connection of knots and links with
braids, and that Vaughan Jones (now at UC Berkeley, winner of 1990 Fields
Medal) unexpectedly discovered a system to index braid generators and
thus label knots and links, using a new polynomial. The article goes on
to describe the role of the braid group in statistical physics, that of
knot theory in the attempt to classify three-dimensional manifolds, and
the connection between knot complements and three-manifolds.
This review was reprinted with permission from Mathematics Magazine,
February 1992 issue.
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