| Trefoil | |
|---|---|
| Common name | Overhand knot |
| Arf invariant | 1 |
| Braid length | 3 |
| Braid no. | 2 |
| Bridge no. | 2 |
| Crosscap no. | 1 |
| Crossing no. | 3 |
| Genus | 1 |
| Hyperbolic volume | 0 |
| Stick no. | 6 |
| Tunnel no. | 1 |
| Unknotting no. | 1 |
| Conway notation | [3] |
| A-B notation | 31 |
| Dowker notation | 4, 6, 2 |
| Last /Next | 01 / 41 |
| Other | |
| alternating, torus, fibered, pretzel, prime, slice, reversible, tricolorable, twist | |
In topology, a branch of mathematics, the trefoil knot is the simplest example of a nontrivial knot. The trefoil can be obtained by joining together the two loose ends of a common overhand knot, resulting in a knotted loop. As the simplest knot, the trefoil is fundamental to the study of mathematical knot theory.
The trefoil knot is named after the three-leaf clover (or trefoil) plant.
The trefoil knot can be defined as the curve obtained from the following parametric equations:
The (2,3)-torus knot is also a trefoil knot. The following parametric equations give a (2,3)-torus knot lying on torus :
Any continuous deformation of the curve above is also considered a trefoil knot. Specifically, any curve isotopic to a trefoil knot is also considered to be a trefoil. In addition, the mirror image of a trefoil knot is also considered to be a trefoil. In topology and knot theory, the trefoil is usually defined using a knot diagram instead of an explicit parametric equation.
In algebraic geometry, the trefoil can also be obtained as the intersection in C2 of the unit 3-sphere S3 with the complex plane curve of zeroes of the complex polynomial z2 + w3 (a cuspidal cubic).