The Determinant and the Signature

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Revision as of 20:43, 27 August 2005 by 69.156.15.171 (talk)
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(For In[1] see Setup)

In[1]:= ?KnotDet

KnotDet[K] returns the determinant of a knot K.

In[2]:= ?KnotSignature

KnotSignature[K] returns the signature of a knot K.

Thus, for example, the knots 5_1 and 10_132 have the same determinant (and even the same Alexander and Jones polynomials), but different signatures:

In[3]:=
KnotDet /@ {Knot[5, 1], Knot[10, 132]}
Out[3]=
{5, 5}
In[4]:=
{Equal @@ (Jones[#][q]& /@ {Knot[5, 1], Knot[10, 132]}), Equal @@ (Alexander[#][t]& /@ {Knot[5, 1], Knot[10, 132]})}
Out[4]=
{True, True}
In[5]:=
KnotSignature /@ {Knot[5, 1], Knot[10, 132]}
Out[5]=
{-4, 0}