arXiv research

New categories from TQFTs interpret skein relations.

Study braid group actions on exceptional sequences using branched coverings.

In the present paper we give a new method for converting virtual knots and links to virtual braids. Indeed the braiding method given in this paper is quite general, and applies to all the categories in which braiding can be accomplished. We give a unifying topological interpretation of virtuals and flats (virtual strin…

The paper explores how the unit inclusion affects topological quantum field theories in non-semisimple categories.

This paper gives a new interpretation of the virtual braid group in terms of a strict monoidal category SC that is freely generated by one object and three morphisms, two of the morphisms corresponding to basic pure virtual braids and one morphism corresponding to a transposition in the symmetric group. The key to this…

The paper constructs braiding structures for a specific subfactor.

Math verifies Aganagic's proposal for Khovanov homology.

We categorify the notion of an infinitesimal braiding in a linear strict symmetric monoidal category, leading to the notion of a (strict) infinitesimal 2-braiding in a linear symmetric strict monoidal 2-category. We describe the associated categorification of the 4-term relation, leading to six categorified relations. …

Spider category comparison proves equivalence to Sikora's quotient category.

Semisimplicity proven for conformal blocks representations.

The paper studies which branched covers can be lifted to braided embeddings.

We describe how an Ore category with a Garside family can be used to construct a classifying space for its fundamental group(s). The construction simultaneously generalizes Brady's classifying space for braid groups and the Stein--Farley complexes used for various relatives of Thompson's groups. It recovers the fact th…

Study of bonded knots and braids with new algebraic models.

Functor connects 4D 2-handlebodies to ribbon categories, detecting non-deformation diffeomorphisms.

We give a monoidal presentation of Coxeter and braid 2-groups, in terms of decorated planar graphs. This presentation extends the Coxeter presentation. We deduce a simple criterion for a Coxeter group or braid group to act on a category.

Using a quiver algebra of a cyclic quiver, we construct a faithful categorical action of the extended braid group of affine type A on its bounded homotopy category of finitely generated projective modules. The algebra is trigraded and we identify the trigraded dimensions of the space of morphisms of this category with …

We study the unwrapped Fukaya category of Lagrangian branes ending on a Legendrian knot. Our knots live at contact infinity in the cotangent bundle of a surface, the Fukaya category of which is equivalent to the category of constructible sheaves on the surface itself. Consequently, our category can be described as cons…

The paper classifies virtual knot polynomials and trivalent graph invariants using skein theory.

Compactifies stability space for $A_2$ category, introducing $q$-deformed rational numbers.

We construct a finite dimensional quiver algebra from the non-simply laced type $B$ Dynkin diagram, which we call the type $B$ zigzag algebra. This leads to a faithful categorical action of the type $B$ braid group $\mathcal{A}(B)$, acting on the homotopy category of its projective modules. This categorical action is a…

This is a survey on the project `Decorated Marked Surfaces', where we introduce the decoration $Δ$ on a marked surfaces $\mathbf{S}$, to study Calabi-Yau-2 (cluster) categories, Calabi-Yau-3 (Fukaya) categories, braid groups for quivers with potential, quadratic differentials and stability conditions.

New categorical actions link topological and algebraic structures.

A family of TQFTs parametrised by G-crossed braided spherical fusion categories has been defined recently as a state sum model and as a Hamiltonian lattice model. Concrete calculations of the resulting manifold invariants are scarce because of the combinatorial complexity of triangulations, if nothing else. Handle deco…

In 2001, Khovanov and Seidel constructed a faithful action of the (m+1)-strand braid group on the derived category of left modules over a quiver algebra, A_m. We interpret the Hochschild homology of the Khovanov-Seidel braid invariant as a direct summand of the sutured Khovanov homology of the annular braid closure.

We give a finite presentation for the braid twist group of a decorated surface. If the decorated surface arises from a triangulated marked surface without punctures, we obtain a finite presentation for the spherical twist group of the associated 3-Calabi-Yau triangulated category. The motivation/application is that the…

In this paper we prove a Markov Theorem for virtual braids and for some analogs of this structure. The virtual braid group is the natural companion in the category of virtual knots, just as the Artin braid group is the natural companion to classical knots and links. In this paper we follow the L--move methods to prove …

The paper constructs Yang-Baxter solutions using categorical augmented racks.

We construct a functor from the category of oriented tangles in R^3 to the category of Hermitian modules and Lagrangian relations over Z[t,t^{-1}]. This functor extends the Burau representations of the braid groups and its generalization to string links due to Le Dimet.

We describe a collection of graded rings which surject onto Webster rings for sl(2) and which should be related to certain categories of singular Soergel bimodules. In the first non-trivial case, we construct a categorical braid group action which categorifies the Burau representation.

New model for Calabi-Yau-$\mathbb{X}$ categories using decorated marked surfaces.

In this paper, which is mostly a research announcement, we give a new algebraic construction of knot contact homology in the sense of L. Ng [Ng05a]. For a link $L$ in ${\mathbb R}^3$, we define a differential graded (DG) $k$-category $\tilde{\mathscr A}$ with finitely many objects, whose quasi-equivalence class is …

A bottom tangle is a tangle in a cube consisting only of arc components, each of which has the two endpoints on the bottom line of the cube, placed next to each other. We introduce a subcategory B of the category of framed, oriented tangles, which acts on the set of bottom tangles. We give a finite set of generators of…

We describe the universal target of annular Khovanov-Rozansky link homology functors as the homotopy category of a free symmetric monoidal category generated by one object and one endomorphism. This categorifies the ring of symmetric functions and admits categorical analogues of plethystic transformations, which we use…

We classify all fusion categories for a given set of fusion rules with three simple object types. If a conjecture of Ostrik is true, our classification completes the classification of fusion categories with three simple object types. To facilitate the discussion we describe a convenient, concrete and useful variation o…

Quantum invariant derived from ternary cohomology of self-distributive structures.

A new category generates 1D tangle invariants.

The abstract formulates and proves a categorification of Robertson's conjecture.

We define and study the category of symmetric $\mathfrak{sl}_2$-webs. This category is a combinatorial description of the category of all finite dimensional quantum $\mathfrak{sl}_2$-modules. Explicitly, we show that (the additive closure of) the symmetric $\mathfrak{sl}_2$-spider is (braided monoidally) equivalent to …

We discuss the equivalence between the categories of certain ribbon graphs and subgroups of the modular group $Γ$ and use it to construct exponentially large families of not Hurwitz equivalent simple braid monodromy factorizations of the same element. As an application, we also obtain exponentially large families of {\…

Derives Khovanov homology for 2-strand braids using combinatorial relations.

We define a category $v\mathcal{T}$ of tangles diagrams drawn on surfaces with boundaries. On the one hand we show that there is a natural functor from the category of virtual tangles to $v\mathcal{T}$ which induces an equivalence of categories. On the other hand, we show that $v\mathcal{T}$ is universal among ribbon c…

Discrete Morse theory simplifies Khovanov homology calculations.

Using an extension of the Kontsevich integral to tangles in handlebodies similar to a construction given by Andersen, Mattes and Reshetikhin, we construct a functor $Z:\mathcal{B}\to \widehat{\mathbb{A}}$, where $\mathcal{B}$ is the category of bottom tangles in handlebodies and $\widehat{\mathbb{A}}$ is the degree-com…

Computes Khovanov homology for 2-strand braids via graph relations.

Polynomial representations found in surface braid and mapping class groups.

We use the technique of quantum skew Howe duality to investigate the monoidal category of exterior powers of the standard representation of $U_q(\mathfrak{gl}(1|1))$. This produces a complete diagrammatic description of the category in terms of trivalent graphs, with the usual MOY relations plus one additional family o…

Given a family of groups admitting a braided monoidal structure (satisfying mild assumptions) we construct a family of spaces on which the groups act and whose connectivity yields, via a classical argument of Quillen, homological stability for the family of groups. We show that stability also holds with both polynomial…

We propose a new non-commutative generalization of the representation variety and the character variety of a knot group. Our strategy is to reformulate the construction of the algebra of functions on the space of representations in terms of Hopf algebra objects in a braided category (braided Hopf algebra). The construc…