Tight conformation of 2-bridge knots using superhelices

Abstract

The ropelength is a mathematical quantity that regulates the tightness of flexible strands in the three-dimensional space. The superhelical conformation of long twisted strands is known to be more efficient in terms of ropelength compared with the circular double helical conformation. In this paper, we present a conformation of 2-bridge knots by using ropelength-minimizing superhelical curves and derive an upper bound on the ropelength of 2-bridge knots. Our superhelical model of 2-bridge knots is shown to be more efficient than the standard double helical one if the iterative twisted parts are long enough.