Knots and links often occur in physical systems, idoi:10.1038/NPHYS3679KauffmanUnivLouisUnivH.UnivIrvineUnivWilliamUnivT.UnivM.UnivKlecknerUnivDustinUnivNature PhysicsKleckner, D., Kauffman, L.H., & Irvine, W.T.M. How superfluid vortex knots untie. Nature Phys. 12, 650 (2015).D. Kleckner...
To understand how this untying works, we simulate the behavior of 1,458 superfluid vortex knots of varying complexity and scale in the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Without exception, we find that the knots untie efficiently and completely, and do so within a predictable time range. We also ...