Curves with no tritangent planes in space and their convex envelopes

M. H. Freedman ([3]) proved that for a generic subset of closed curves in ~ 3 with nonvanishing curvature and torsion the number of t r i tangent planes is even and finite. He also guessed, for each even number s _> 0, the existence of an open subset A8 of closed curves with nonvanishing curvature and torsion such tha t each curve in A8 has exact ly s t r i t angent planes. A question tha t can be asked in this context is: Which curves with nonvanishing curvature and torsion have no t r i tangent planes? An example of such a curve is given by the (1,2)-curve on the torus with rat io a, 3 < a < 5 (see [2]). For a generi c curve, we give a pa r t i a l answer to this question here by finding …