From: Krister Walfridsson <cato@df.lth.se>
Date: Sun, 16 Jun 1996 11:03:35 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Cryptology and knot theory?
In-Reply-To: <UlkgMQq00YUwQ3hq13@andrew.cmu.edu>
Message-ID: <Pine.VUL.3.91.960616003502.25074B-100000@marvin.df.lth.se>
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Hej!

I've finally got the time to read "Cyphernomicon", and in chapter 5 
(Cryptology) and 17 (The Future) I found this, which I think looks 
interesting, since I'm interested in computational topology.

    5.5.9. Miscellaneous Abstract Ideas
             [...stuff deleted...]
             - links to knot theory

    17.10.3. Ciphers are somewhat like knots...the right sequence of moves
             unties them, the wrong sequence only makes them more tangled. 
             ("Knot theory" is becoming a hot topic in math and physics
             (work of Vaughn Jones, string theory, etc.) and I suspect
             there are some links between knot theory and crypto.)
 
Has any work been done along those lines?

I did some searches with AltaVista, but I only found Cyphernomicon...

   /Krister