Extending topological surgery to natural processes and dynamical systems

PLoS One. 2017 Sep 15;12(9):e0183993. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0183993. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Topological surgery is a mathematical technique used for creating new manifolds out of known ones. We observe that it occurs in natural phenomena where a sphere of dimension 0 or 1 is selected, forces are applied and the manifold in which they occur changes type. For example, 1-dimensional surgery happens during chromosomal crossover, DNA recombination and when cosmic magnetic lines reconnect, while 2-dimensional surgery happens in the formation of tornadoes, in the phenomenon of Falaco solitons, in drop coalescence and in the cell mitosis. Inspired by such phenomena, we introduce new theoretical concepts which enhance topological surgery with the observed forces and dynamics. To do this, we first extend the formal definition to a continuous process caused by local forces. Next, for modeling phenomena which do not happen on arcs or surfaces but are 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional, we fill in the interior space by defining the notion of solid topological surgery. We further introduce the notion of embedded surgery in S3 for modeling phenomena which involve more intrinsically the ambient space, such as the appearance of knotting in DNA and phenomena where the causes and effect of the process lies beyond the initial manifold, such as the formation of black holes. Finally, we connect these new theoretical concepts with a dynamical system and we present it as a model for both 2-dimensional 0-surgery and natural phenomena exhibiting a 'hole drilling' behavior. We hope that through this study, topology and dynamics of many natural phenomena, as well as topological surgery itself, will be better understood.

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Models, Biological*
  • Surgical Procedures, Operative*

Grants and funding

This research has been co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund - ESF) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program "Education and Lifelong Learning" of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) - Research Funding Program: THALES: Reinforcement of the interdisciplinary and/or inter-institutional research and innovation. In particular, this research is a result of the research program THALES “Algebraic Modeling of Topological and Computational Structures”, MIS 380154. Professor Sofia Lambropoulou was the Scientific Administrator of this program.