Three responses to the knotty question posed below.........DMD _____________________________________ > Subject: bracket polynomial computation > Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 21:15:23 -0400 > From: "lizzy goldfarb" > > Hello, this is a question for the algebraic topology mailing list. > > I have written a C++ program that computes the bracket polynomial for an > > encoding of a knot diagram. Does anyone on the list know of similar > programs? > > Thanks, > > Lizzie Goldfarb ______________________________________ Subject: Re: knot polynomials Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 10:24:57 -0400 (EDT) From: Dev Sinha My birth (or pre-birth if one counts one's PhD thesis as their birth) as a topologist was writing, with the help of Haynes Miller, C++ software to compute not only the bracket polynomial but a polynomial which is associated (through work of Turaev and Reshitikhin but is now easy to see as part of finite-type knot theory) to the Lie algebra g_2. I used an algorithm of Kuperberg's. I would be more than happy to share my code. Another person who has coded such things (and who I don't think is on this list but he has colleagues at New Mexico State who are) is Ted Stanford. He's done quite a bit computationally I think. -Dev ___________________________________ Subject: Re: knot polynomials Date: 26 Apr 2001 09:50:29 -0400 From: Justin "R." Smith I believe that Fox's doctoral dissertation involved machine computation of knot polynomials (perhaps that was even its title). Look in the bibliography to Introduction to knot theory. I'm not sure what the bracket polynomial of a knot diagram is, though. Fox didn't use C++ (which didn't exist at the time). Wouldn't a more symbolic language like Lisp or GAP be better? -- ______________________________________________________________________ Time blows wildly against my door | Justin R. Smith Stirring discarded sorrows | Department of Mathematics and Like dead leaves of summers past | Computer Science Memories of forgotten lore | Drexel University Making way for new tomorrows | Philadelphia, PA 19104 New hopes, new fears, | and new ways that last | Office: (215) 895-1847 URL: http://vorpal.mcs.drexel.edu | Fax: (215) 895-1582 _________________________________________________ Subject: Re: knot polynomials Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 09:09:57 -0400 From: jim stasheff compare snappea?