A note on Fox colorings of virtual tangles

Abstract

We study Fox colorings of tangle diagrams by $R=\mathbb{Z}$ or $\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$, where $p\geq3$ is an odd integer. For an $R$-colored $m$-string tangle diagram, the colors at the $2m$ boundary points form a vector $v\in R^{2m}$. We show that for classical tangle diagrams, such vectors are completely characterized by the alternating sum condition $\Delta(v)=0$. We then investigate how this restriction changes in the virtual setting. For $R=\mathbb{Z}$, the realizability of $v$ is determined by a divisibility condition on $\Delta(v)$. For $R=\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$, every vector is realizable by a virtual tangle diagram.