Khovanov monodromy groups via motions

Abstract

For any link, we define a monodromy map from the motion group of the link to the group of automorphisms of the link's Khovanov homology. The image of this map is the \emph{unoriented monodromy group} of the link. This map allows us to convert results concerning motion groups of links into ones about their Khovanov monodromy. In particular, we use a characterisation of the motion groups of split links to write their unoriented monodromy groups as an explicit semidirect product in terms of their unsplit pieces. We give some demonstrative examples, computing the unoriented monodromy groups of unlinks, Hopf links, and split links composed of pieces thereof.