SearcharxivSearch

arXiv · 2207.08129

New invariants for virtual knots via spanning surfaces

Abstract

We define three different types of spanning surfaces for knots in thickened surfaces. We use these to introduce new Seifert matrices, Alexander-type polynomials, genera, and a signature invariant. One of these Alexander polynomials extends to virtual knots and can obstruct a virtual knot from being classical. Furthermore, it can distinguish a knot in a thickened surface from its mirror up to isotopy. We also propose several constructions of Heegaard Floer homology for knots in thickened surfaces, and give examples why they are not stabilization invariant. However, we can define Floer homology for virtual knots by taking a minimal genus representative. Finally, we use the Behrens-Golla $δ$-invariant to obstruct a knot from being a stabilization of another.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

András Juhász, Louis H. Kauffman, Eiji Ogasa. 2024-04-17. New invariants for virtual knots via spanning surfaces. https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.08129

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Bar cohomology of links: beyond Milnor invariants

We develop bar cohomology of link complements as an invariant of links in homology spheres. In this setting, bar cohomology is a Hopf algebra which is calculable using surfaces and their intersection curves in a link complement. In this first in a sequence of works, we introduce the invariant and show that it defines a canonical subspace of the tensor Hopf algebra, which already encodes information about Milnor's link invariants and provides geometrically significant information beyond them.

math.GT

Homological lifts of Arnold invariants $J^-$ and $J^+$

Viro's Euler-integral polynomial $P_C(q)$ and the Lanzat--Polyak quantized-curvature polynomial $I_q(C)$ refine Arnold's invariants $J^-$ and $J^+$ for generic immersed one-component plane curves. We construct homological lifts of both. The bigraded region homology retains the singular homology of every connected Alexander-index region; its graded Euler characteristic is $P_C(q)$. The triply graded smoothing-circle homology is generated by the oriented circles of the orientation-preserving smoothing and decategorifies to the smoothing term in $I_q(C)$. Keeping the actual region summands and the boundary regions of every smoothing circle gives a homological refinement of the oriented smoothing configuration, or Seifert state. An infinite family proves strictness: both polynomial data and the ordinary homological lifts agree, while the component-graded region homology and the branch-decomposed circle homology distinguish every pair. Further constructions recover the full $I_q(C)$ by a vertex complex, realize the local change of its curvature integral by edge homology, and give a canonical two-state homology for unoriented curves. Viro described his Euler-integral formula as an analogue of face state-sum formulas for quantum knot polynomials. Through the categorifications developed here, we obtain one concrete homological face-state-sum model realizing that analogy.

math.GT