Extended Data Fig. 5: Zoo of knots with different Hopf indices obtained via knot fusion.
From: Fusion and fission of particle-like chiral nematic vortex knots
Integers at the top-left of each row are the expected Hopf index values and numbers above each structure are the corresponding numerically computed Hopf indices. Cores of vortex knots are colored by their director orientation on the \({{\mathbb{S}}}^{2}\) sphere defined in Fig. 2e and Extended Data Fig. 4a. SI Video 10 shows dynamics of fusion of heliknotons with the net total Hopf index of \(Q=3\) and \(Q=4\). Bottom-right insets are the simplified multi-component links generated by KnotPlot software. Dots between structures with Hopf index 8 and 18 imply the vast variety of knots that exist between the two structures but have not been shown in this figure.
