Abstract

Knots are familiar entities that appear at a captivating nexus of art, technology, mathematics, and science. They have recently attracted significant experimental interest, in contexts ranging from knotted DNA [1] and nanostructures [2] to nontrivial vortex knots in classical fluids [3]. Within classical field theories [4], knots have been proposed as the basis of fundamental particles, as well as explaining diverse persistent phenomena such as atoms and molecules [5].

© 2017 Japan Society of Applied Physics, Optical Society of America