{"665875":{"#nid":"665875","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"Mathematicians Eliminate Long-Standing Threat to Knot Conjecture","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EOver 60 years ago, Ralph Fox posed a problem about knots that haunts mathematicians to this day.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ben300694.github.io\/pdfs\/concordance\/%5BFox%5D_Some_Problems_in_Knot_Theory_(1962).pdf\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EHis question\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;is now often formulated as the \u0026ldquo;slice-ribbon conjecture,\u0026rdquo; which posits that two seemingly distinct groups of mathematical knots are actually the same. With its suggestion of elegant simplicity within the world of knots, it\u0026rsquo;s become one of the most high-profile problems in knot theory.\u0026nbsp;For decades, one particular knot was suspected to be a possible route to settling the conjecture. Yet in a\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2207.14187\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Epaper posted last summer\u003C\/a\u003E, five mathematicians found that this knot isn\u0026rsquo;t going to work after all. While the arguments they introduced will provide new insights into a broader class of knots, the work as a whole leaves mathematicians uncertain about the conjecture. \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/jhom6.math.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJen Hom\u003C\/a\u003E, associate\u0026nbsp;professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/jhom6.math.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ESchool of Mathematics\u003C\/a\u003E, has previously collaborated with two of the new paper\u0026#39;s\u0026nbsp;authors, and she weighs in on the results.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"34434","created_gmt":"2023-02-16 20:14:54","changed_gmt":"2023-02-16 20:14:54","author":"Renay San Miguel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"https:\/\/www.quantamagazine.org\/mathematicians-prove-this-knot-cannot-solve-major-problem-20230202\/","dateline":{"date":"2023-02-02T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2023-02-02T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"168854","name":"School of Mathematics"},{"id":"191672","name":"Jen Hom"},{"id":"178269","name":"knot theory"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}