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New knot theory discovery overturns long-held mathematical assumption

(www.scientificamerican.com)
141 points baruchel | 1 comments | 02 Sep 25 11:35 UTC | HN request time: 0.91s | source
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viraptor ◴[04 Sep 25 06:02 UTC] No.45124051[source]▶
Is this something people have been actively trying to disprove? The example provided seems to not be hard to bruteforce - given it's only 5 moves. Does anyone know why there's no older counter example? (Or am I totally underestimating how the number of options explodes in 5 moves?)
replies(3): >>45124262 #>>45124346 #>>45129087 #
1. cottonseed ◴[04 Sep 25 16:32 UTC] No.45129087[source]▶
You cannot bruteforce this. Exhibiting a unknotting of K with n moves only gives you an upper bound u(K) <= n. Proving u(K) = n is an entirely different matter.