Skein module deformations of elementary moves on links

A virtual knot, which is one of generalizations of knots in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$ (or $S^{3}$), is, roughly speaking, an embedded circle in thickened surface $S_{g} \times I$. In this talk we will discuss about knots in 3 dimensional $S_{g} \times S^{1}$. We introduce basic notions for knots in $S_{g} \times S^{1}$, for example, diagrams, moves for diagrams and so on. For knots in $S_{g} \times S^{1}$ technically we lose over/under information, but we will have information how man...

It is well-known:Suppose there are three 1-dimensional links $K_+$, $K_-$, $K_0$ such that $K_+$, $K_-$, and $K_0$ coincide out of a 3-ball $B$ trivially embedded in $S^3$ and that $K_+\cap B$, $K_-\cap B$, and $K_0\cap B$ are drawn as follows. Then $\Delta_{K_+}-\Delta_{K_+}=(t-1)\cdot\Delta_{K_0}$, where $\Delta_{K}$ is the Alexander polynomial of $K$. We know similar formulae of other invariants of 1-dimensional knots and links. (The Jones polynomial etc.) It is natura...

We start a systematic analysis of links up to 5-move equivalence. Our motivation is to develop tools which later can be used to study skein modules based on the skein relation being deformation of a 5-move (in an analogous way as the Kauffman skein module is a deformation of a 2-move, i.e. a crossing change). Our main tools are Jones and Kauffman polynomials and the fundamental group of the 2-fold branch cover of S^3 along a link. We use also the fact that a 5-move is a compo...

Yasutaka Nakanishi asked in 1981 whether a 3-move is an unknotting operation. In Kirby's problem list, this question is called `The Montesinos-Nakanishi 3-move conjecture'. We define the n-th Burnside group of a link and use the 3rd Burnside group to answer Nakanishi's question; ie, we show that some links cannot be reduced to trivial links by 3-moves.

This paper is base on talks which I gave in May, 2010 at Workshop in Trieste (ICTP). In the first part we present an introduction to knots and knot theory from an historical perspective, starting from Summerian knots and ending on Fox 3-coloring. We show also a relation between 3-colorings and the Jones polynomial. In the second part we develop the general theory of Fox colorings and show how to associate a symplectic structure to a tangle boundary so that tangles becomes Lag...

Let $n$ be a positive integer. M. K. Dabkowski and J. H. Przytycki introduced the $n$th Burnside group of links which is preserved by $n$-moves, and proved that for any odd prime $p$ there exist links which are not equivalent to trivial links up to $p$-moves by using their $p$th Burnside groups. This gives counterexamples for the Montesinos-Nakanishi $3$-move conjecture. In general, it is hard to distinguish $p$th Burnside groups of a given link and a trivial link. We give a ...

We provide methods to compute the colored HOMFLY polynomials of knots and links with symmetric representations based on the linear skein theory. By using diagrammatic calculations, several formulae for the colored HOMFLY polynomials are obtained. As an application, we calculate some examples for hyperbolic knots and links, and we study a generalization of the volume conjecture by means of numerical calculations. In these examples, we observe that asymptotic behaviors of invar...

The aim of this survey article is to highlight several notoriously intractable problems about knots and links, as well as to provide a brief discussion of what is known about them.

In this paper, a link diagram is said to be minimal if no Reidemeister move I or II can be applied to it to reduce the number of crossings. We show that for an arbitrary diagram D of a link without a trivial split component, a minimal diagram obtained by applying Reidemeister moves I and II to D is unique. The proof also shows that the number of crossings of such a minimal diagram is unique for any diagram of any link. As the unknot admits infinitely many non-trivial minimal ...

In this paper we present a systematic method to generate prime knot and prime link minimal triple-point projections, and then classify all classical prime knots and prime links with triple-crossing number at most four. We also extend the table of known knots and links with triple-crossing number equal to five. By introducing a new type of diagrammatic move, we reduce the number of generating moves on triple-crossing diagrams, and derive a minimal generating set of moves conne...