arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Doug Bullock.
We compute the Kauffman bracket skein module of the complement of a twist knot, finding that it is free and infinite dimensional. The basis consists of cables of a two-component link, one component of which is a meridian of the knot. The cabling of the meridian can be arbitrarily large while the cabling of the other component is limited to the number of twists.
For each closed, orientable surface F, we construct a local, diffeomorphism invariant trace on the Kauffman bracket skein module K_t(F x [0,1]). The trace is defined when |t| is neither 0 nor 1, and at certain roots of unity. At t = - 1, the trace is integration against the symplectic measure on the SU(2) character variety of the fundamental group of F.
We describe, for a few small examples, the Kauffman bracket skein algebra of a surface crossed with an interval. If the surface is a punctured torus the result is a quantization of the symmetric algebra in three variables (and an algebra closely related to a cyclic quantization of $U(so_3$). For a torus without boundary we obtain a quantization of "the symmetric homologies" of a torus (equivalently, the coordinate ring of the $SL_2(C)$-character variety of $Z \oplus Z$). Presentations are also given for the four punctured sphere and twice punctured torus. We conclude with an investigation of central elements and zero divisors.
See q-alg/9710003 for the corrected version of this paper.
We construct lattice gauge field theory based on a quantum group on a lattice of dimension 1. Innovations include a coalgebra structure on the connections, and an investigation of connections that are not distinguishable by observables. We prove that when the quantum group is a deformation of a connected algebraic group (over the complex numbers), then the algebra of observables forms a deformation quantization of the ring of characters of the fundamental group of the lattice with respect to the corresponding algebraic group. Finally, we investigate lattice gauge field theory based on quantum SL(2,C), and conclude that the algebra of observables is the Kauffman bracket skein module of a cylinder over a surface associated to the lattice.
For each skein module we describe a homology theory which, for any three manifold recovers the skein module at its zero level. The theory measures skein-like relations among skein relations, mimicking Hilbert's theory of syzygies. We work explicit examples for the homology groups corresponding to the Kauffman bracket. It is shown, in particular, that for every manifold most of the groups are non-trivial.
This is a survey article describing the various ways in which the Kauffman bracket skein module is a quantization of surface group characters. These include a purely heuristic sense of deformation of a presentation, a Poisson quantization, and a lattice gauge field theory quantization.
The Kauffman bracket skein module $K(M)$ of a 3-manifold $M$ is defined over formal power series in the variable $h$ by letting $A=e^{h/4}$. For a compact oriented surface $F$, it is shown that $K(F \times I)$ is a quantization of the $\g$-characters of the fundamental group of $F$, corresponding to a geometrically defined Poisson bracket. Finite type invariants for unoriented knots and links are defined. Topologically free Kauffman bracket modules are shown to generate finite type invariants. It is shown for compact $M$ that $K(M)$ can be generated as a module by cables on a finite set of knots. Moreover, if $M$ contains no incompressible surfaces, the module is finitely generated.
Let $M$ be a compact orientable 3-manifold. The set of characters of $SL_2({\mathbb C})$ representations of the fundamental group of $M$ forms a closed affine algebraic set. We show that its coordinate ring is isomorphic to a specialization of the Kauffman bracket skein module modulo its nilradical. This is accomplished by making the module into a combinatorial analog of the ring, in which tools of skein theory are exploited to illuminate relations among characters. We conclude with an application, proving that a small manifold's specialized module is necessarily finite dimensional.