In Knot Physics, elementary fermions—like electrons and quarks—are topological defects in the spacetime manifold, which we often refer to as knots.1 We can think of spacetime as a 3-dimensional manifold that changes over time; as such, the fermions of Knot Physics are topological defects in that 3-dimensional manifold.
To understand their topology, we first consider the 2-dimensional version of these topological defects and then extend the concept to 3 dimensions. We will use a process known as topological surgery, where we take familiar manifolds and then cut and glue them to create the topological defects.
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