In
mathematical knot theory, a
link is a collection of
knots which do not intersect, but which may be linked (or knotted) together. A knot can be described as a link with one component. Links and knots are studied in a branch of mathematics called
knot theory. Implicit in this definition is that there is a
trivial reference link, usually called the
unlink, but the word is also sometimes used in context where there is no notion of a trivial link.