The triple-tangency conjecture for the twice tangent sphere map

About 22 years old · traced to

Let KK be a knot and let ψK(2,2)\psi_K^{(2,2)} be its twice tangent sphere map, which assigns to a pair of distinct points of KK the sphere tangent to KK at both points, wherever this sphere is defined. Triple-tangency conjecture. If KK is non-trivial, then ψK(2,2)\psi_K^{(2,2)} is not injective; equivalently, there is a sphere Σ\Sigma tangent to KK at three or more points. This predicts a multiple tangency phenomenon for every non-trivial knot, but the source gives no resolution.

References

Primary source

R. Langevin and J. O'Hara, “Conformally invariant energies of knots”, arXiv:math/0409396 (2004).

Progress summary

Never refreshed

Nothing recorded yet. Refresh searches the literature and the public web for attempts on this problem, and writes the first summary here.

Solutions 0

No solutions have been posted yet.