The homothety conjecture for infinity-shaped extremal curves

Let γα\gamma_\alpha be a closed extremal curve determined by a pendulum trajectory α(t)\alpha(t), and let K(ξ)K(\xi) denote the complete elliptic integral of the first kind. For a nonzero integer rr, consider α\alpha satisfying

sinα(t)2=ξsn(2rK(ξ)tπξ).\sin\frac{\alpha(t)}{2}=\xi\operatorname{sn}\Big(\frac{2rK(\xi)t}{\pi}\Big|\xi\Big).

Homothety conjecture. All infinity-shaped extremal curves are homothetic to the curve γα\gamma_\alpha for this choice of α\alpha, where ξ.90890856\xi\approx.90890856.

This conjecture identifies the nontrivial extremal shape numerically obtained from the pendulum equation and predicts that all infinity-shaped extremal curves differ only by scaling and parametrization. The source provides numerical evidence but no proof or resolution.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Oleg Karpenkov and Alexey Sossinsky, “Energies of knot diagrams”, arXiv:1106.3414 (2011).

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