arXiv research

Classifies prime algebraic tangles up to 14 crossings.

Mutant knots, in the sense of Conway, are known to share the same Homfly polynomial. Their 2-string satellites also share the same Homfly polynomial, but in general their m-string satellites can have different Homfly polynomials for m>2. We show that, under conditions of extra symmetry on the constituent 2-tangles, the…

The motivation for this work was to construct a nontrivial knot with trivial Jones polynomial. Although that open problem has not yielded, the methods are useful for other problems in the theory of knot polynomials. The subject of the present paper is a generalization of Conway's mutation of knots and links. Instead of…

We introduce and study in detail an invariant of (1,1) tangles. This invariant, derived from a family of four dimensional representations of the quantum superalgebra U_q[gl(2|1)], will be referred to as the Links-Gould invariant. We find that our invariant is distinct from the Jones, HOMFLY and Kauffman polynomials (de…

Study on distinguishing mutant knots using specific representations.

Pairs of genus 2 mutant knots can have different Homfly polynomials, for example some 3-string satellites of Conway mutant pairs. We give examples which have different Kauffman 3-variable polynomials, answering a question raised by Dunfield et al in their study of genus 2 mutants. While pairs of genus 2 mutant knots ha…

We present a notion of mutation of hyperbolic polyhedra, analogous to mutation in knot theory, and then present a general question about commensurability of mutant pairs of polyhedra. We motivate that question with several concrete examples of mutant pairs for which commensurability is unknown. The polyhedra we conside…

Details of quantum knot invariant calculations using a specific SU(3)_q-module are given which distinguish the Conway and Kinoshita-Teresaka pair of mutant knots. Features of Kuperberg's skein-theoretic techniques for SU(3)_q invariants in the context of mutant knots are also discussed.

A pretzel knot $K$ is called $odd$ if all its twist parameters are odd, and $mutant$ $ribbon$ if it is mutant to a simple ribbon knot. We prove that the family of odd, 5-stranded pretzel knots satisfies a weaker version of the Slice-Ribbon Conjecture: All slice, odd, 5-stranded pretzel knots are $mutant$ $ribbon$. We d…

We exhibit an infinite family of knots with isomorphic knot Heegaard Floer homology. Each knot in this infinite family admits a nontrivial genus two mutant which shares the same total dimension in both knot Floer homology and Khovanov homology. Each knot is distinguished from its genus two mutant by both knot Floer hom…

We show that the zeroth coefficient of the cables of the HOMFLY polynomial (colored HOMFLY polynomials) does not distinguish mutants. This makes a sharp contrast with the total HOMFLY polynomial whose 3-cables can distinguish mutants.

We illustrate from the viewpoint of braiding operations on WZNW conformal blocks how colored HOMFLY polynomials with multiplicity structure can detect mutations. As an example, we explicitly evaluate the (2,1)-colored HOMFLY polynomials that distinguish a famous mutant pair, Kinoshita-Terasaka and Conway knot.

Let $\mathcal{L}$ be a knot with a fixed positive crossing and $\mathcal{L}_n$ the link obtained by replacing this crossing with $n$ positive twists. We prove that the knot Floer homology $\widehat{\text{HFK}}(\mathcal{L}_n)$ `stabilizes' as $n$ goes to infinity. This categorifies a similar stabilization phenomenon of …

Given a self-diffeomorphism h of a closed, orientable surface S and an embedding f of S into a three-manifold M, we construct a mutant manifold N by cutting M along f(S) and regluing by h. We will consider whether there are any gluings such that for any embedding, the manifold and its mutant have isomorphic Heegaard Fl…

We prove that if a finite order knot invariant does not distinguish mutant knots, then the corresponding weight system depends on the intersection graph of a chord diagram rather than on the diagram itself. The converse statement is easy and well known. We discuss relationship between our results and certain Lie algebr…

We prove that many pretzel knots of the form $P(2n,m,-2n\pm1,-m)$ are not topologically slice, even though their positive mutants $P(2n, -2n\pm1, m, -m)$ are ribbon. We use the sliceness obstruction of Kirk and Livingston related to the twisted Alexander polynomials associated to prime power cyclic covers of knots.

We survey generalisations of the Chang-Skjelbred Lemma for integral coefficients. Moreover, we construct examples of manifolds with actions of tori of rank > 2 whose equivariant cohomology is torsion-free, but not free. This answers a question of Allday's. The "mutants" we construct are obtained from compactified repre…

Many knots and links in S^3 can be drawn as gluing of three manifolds with one or more four-punctured S^2 boundaries. We call these knot diagrams as double fat graphs whose invariants involve only the knowledge of the fusion and the braiding matrices of four-strand braids. Incorporating the properties of four-point con…

Paper defines new topological invariants for DP tangles.

Simpler method detects trivial rational 3-tangle.

An enhanced trivalent tangle is a trivalent tangle with some of its edges labeled. We use enhanced trivalent tangles and classical knot theory to provide a recipe for constructing invariants for trivalent tangles, and in particular, for knotted trivalent graphs. Our method also yields invariants of, what we refer to as…

We show examples of knots with the same polynomial invariants and hyperbolic volumes, with variously coinciding 2-cable polynomials and colored Jones polynomials, which are not mutants.

The ``Links-Gould invariant'' is a two-variable Laurent polynomial invariant of oriented (1,1) tangles, which is derived from the representation of the braid generator associated with the one-parameter family of four dimensional representations with highest weights (0,0|a) of the quantum superalgebra U_q[gl(2|1)]. We u…

Introduces XC-tangles for quantum tangle invariants.

Study connects taffy pulling, fractions, and rational tangles.

Method for computing Khovanov homology of tangles.

This article addresses persistent tangles. These are tangles whose presence in a knot diagram forces that diagram to be knotted. We provide new methods for constructing persistent tangles. Our techniques rely mainly on the existence of non-trivial colorings for the tangles in question. Our main result in this article i…

We introduce a generalization of oriented tangles, which are still called tangles, so that they are in one-to-one correspondence with the sutured manifolds. We define cobordisms between sutured manifolds (tangles) by generalizing cobordisms between oriented tangles. For every commutative algebra A over Z/2Z, we define …

Paper explores conditions for constructing new quasi-alternating links.

The paper extends knot contact homology to tangles and proves a gluing formula.

Paper defines and analyzes mathematical equivalence of periodic tangles.

This paper gives two new combinatorial topological proofs of the classification of rational tangles. Each proof rests on an elegant lemma showing that rational tangles are isotopic to canonical alternating rational tangles. The first proof defines the tangle fraction from the canonical form and uses flyping to prove in…

Updated polynomial for virtual tangles, compatible with decompositions.

Spatial graphs study tangle replacement with equivalence classes.

Paper defines linking numbers for periodic tangles.

We show that for a tangle $T$ with $-\partial^0T \cong \partial^1 T$ the Hochschild homology of the tangle Floer homology $\widetilde{\mathit{CT}}(T)$ is equivalent to the link Floer homology of the closure $T' = T/(-\partial^0T \sim \partial^1 T)$ of the tangle, linked with the tangle axis. In addition, we show that t…

Computes Kauffman bracket polynomial for specific 2-tangle shadows.

In this paper, We introduce an invariant of rational n-tangles which is obtained from the Kauffman bracket. It forms a vector with Laurent polynomial entries. We prove that the invariant classifies the rational 2-tangles and the reduced alternating rational 3-tangles. We conjecture that it classifies the rational 3-tan…

The paper addresses the $k$-tangle enumeration problem. We introduce a notion of cascade diagram for $k$-tangle projections. An effective enumeration algorithm for projections is proposed based on cascade representation. Tangles projections with up to 12 crossings are tabulated. We provide also pictures of alternating …

We give an algorithm for computing the Teichmüller polynomial for a certain class of fibered alternating links associated to trees. Furthermore, we exhibit a mutant pair of such links distinguished by the Teichmüller polynomial.

We note that a rational $3$-tangle diagram is obtained from a combination of four generators. There is an algorithm to distinguish two rational $3$-tangle diagrams up to isotopy. However, there is no perfect classification about rational $3$-tangle diagrams such as the classification of rational $2$-tangle diagrams cor…

A tangle is an oriented 1-submanifold of the cylinder whose endpoints lie on the two disks in the boundary of the cylinder. Using an algebraic tool developed by Lescop, we extend the Burau representation of braids to a functor from the category of oriented tangles to the category of Z[t,t^{-1}]-modules. For (1,1)-tangl…

New results on splitting tangles and spatial graphs.

Tangle machines are a topologically inspired diagrammatic formalism to describe information flow in networks. This paper begins with an expository account of tangle machines motivated by the problem of describing `covariance intersection' fusion of Gaussian estimators in networks. It then gives two examples in which ta…

Positive Thompson links are arborescent tangles.

To study embeddings of tangles in knots, we use quandle cocycle invariants. Computations are carried out for the tables of knots and tangles, to investigate which tangles may or may not embed in knots in the tables.

We generalize our previous work on categorification of Kauffman bracket skein module of surfaces, by extending our homology to tangles in cylinders over surfaces, F x [0,1]. Our homology of 0-tangles and 1-tangles in D^3 coincides (up to normalization) with Khovanov link homology and the reduced Khovanov link homology.…

Study on coloring virtual tangles with integer and modular arithmetic.