arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J. Scott Carter.
Quandle cocycles are constructed from extensions of quandles. The theory is parallel to that of group cohomology and group extensions. An interpretation of quandle cocycle invariants as obstructions to extending knot colorings is given, and is extended to links component-wise.
The groups of link bordism can be identified with homotopy groups via the Pontryagin-Thom construction. B.J. Sanderson computed the bordism group of 3 component surface-links using the Hilton-Milnor Theorem, and later gave a geometric interpretation of the groups in terms of intersections of Seifert hypersurfaces and their framings. In this paper, we geometrically represent every element of the bordism group uniquely by a certain standard form of a surface-link, a generalization of a Hopf link. The standard forms give rise to an inverse of Sanderson's geometrically defined invariant.
The group of bordism classes of unoriented surfaces in 4-space is determined. The bordism classes are characterized by normal Euler numbers,double linking numbers, and triple linking numbers.
The state-sum invariants for knots and knotted surfaces defined from quandle cocycles are described using the Kronecker product between cycles represented by colored knot diagrams and a cocycle of a finite quandle used to color the diagram. Such an interpretation is applied to evaluating the invariants. Algebraic interpretations of quandle cocycles as deformations of extensions are also given. The proofs rely on colored knot diagrams.
We introduce an equivalence relation, called stable equivalence, on knot diagrams and closed curves on surfaces. We give bijections between the set of abstract knots, the set of virtual knots, and the set of the stable equivalence classes of knot diagrams on surfaces. Using these bijections, we define concordance and link homology for virtual links. As an application, it is shown that Kauffman's example of a virtual knot diagram is not equivalent to a classical knot diagram.
Homomorphisms on quandle cohomology groups that raise the dimensions by one are studied in relation to the cocycle state-sum invariants of knots and knotted surfaces. Skein relations are also studied.
Triple linking numbers were defined for 3-component oriented surface-links in 4-space using signed triple points on projections in 3-space. In this paper we give an algebraic formulation using intersections of homology classes (or cup products on cohomology groups). We prove that spherical links have trivial triple linking numbers and that triple linking numbers are link homology invariants.
Geometric representations of cycles in quandle homology theory are given in terms of colored knot diagrams. Abstract knot diagrams are generalized to diagrams with exceptional points which, when colored, correspond to degenerate cycles. Bounding chains are realized, and used to obtain equivalence moves for homologous cycles. The methods are applied to prove that boundary homomorphisms in a homology exact sequence vanish.
Lower bounds of betti numbers for homology groups of racks and quandles will be given using the quotient homomorphism to the orbit quandles. Exact sequences relating various types of homology groups are analyzed. Geometric methods of proving non-triviality of cohomology groups are also given, using virtual knots. The results can be applied to knot theory as the first step towards evaluationg the state-sum invariants defined from quandle cohomology.
State-sum invariants for knotted curves and surfaces using quandle cohomology were introduced by Laurel Langford and the authors in math.GT/9903135 In this paper we present methods to compute the invariants and sample computations. Computer calculations of cohomological dimensions for some quandles are presented. For classical knots, Burau representations together with Maple programs are used to evaluate the invariants for knot table. For knotted surfaces in 4-space, movie methods and surface braid theory are used. Relations between the invariants and symmetries of knots are discussed.
A formula that relates triple points, branch points, and their distances from infinity is presented. We recover trivial normal Euler classes for oriented surfaces, and formulas on signed triple points.
Crane and Frenkel proposed a state sum invariant for triangulated 4-manifolds.They defined and used new algebraic structures called Hopf categories for their construction. Crane and Yetter studied Hopf categories and gave some examples using group cocycles that are associated to the Drinfeld double of a finite group. In this paper we define a state sum invariant of triangulated 4-manifolds using Crane-Yetter cocycles as Boltzmann weights. Our invariant generalizes the 3-dimensional invariants defined by Dijkgraaf and Witten and the invariants that are defined via Hopf algebras. We present diagrammatic methods for the study of such invariants that illustrate connections between Hopf categories and moves to triangulations.