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Jean-Baptiste Meilhan

Publications and source records attributed to Jean-Baptiste Meilhan.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Milnor-type invariants for surface-links and cut-diagrams

We generalize Milnor link invariants to surface-links in 4-space, possibly with boundary. To this end, we introduce the notion of cut-diagram, which is a 2-dimensional analogue of Gauss diagrams. To each cut-diagram, we associate a group extending the fundamental group of the exterior of a surface-link, and we extract Milnor-type invariants from its successive nilpotent quotients. We show that this yields concordance invariants for surface-links, and that some even are link-homotopy invariants. We give several concrete applications, including realization and classification results. The theory of cut-diagrams is further investigated, heading towards a combinatorial approach to surfaces in 4-space.

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arXiv2026

Combinatorial link concordance using cut-diagrams

Cut-diagrams are diagrammatic objects, defined in dimensions 1 and 2, that generalize links in 3-space and surface-links in 4-space; in dimension 1, this coincides with the theory of welded links. Using cut-diagrams, we introduce an equivalence relation called cut-concordance, which encompasses the topological notion of concordance for classical links. Our main result is that the nilpotent peripheral system of 1-dimensional cut-diagrams is an invariant of cut-concordance, giving along the way a combinatorial version of a theorem of Stallings. We also investigate the relationship with several other equivalence relations in diagrammatic knot theory, in particular in connection with link-homotopy.

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arXiv2025

Welded graphs, Wirtinger groups and knotted punctured spheres

We develop a general diagrammatic theory of welded graphs, and provide an extension of Satoh's Tube map from welded graphs to ribbon surface-links. As a topological application, we obtain a complete link-homotopy classification of so-called knotted punctured spheres in $4$-space, by means of the $4$-dimensional Milnor invariants introduced previously by the authors. On the algebraic side, we show that the theory of welded graphs can be reinterpreted as a theory of Wirtinger group presentations, up to a natural set of transformations; these groups arise as the fundamental group of the exterior of the surface-link obtained from the given welded graph by the extended Tube map. Finally, we address the injectivity question for the Tube map, identifying a new family of local moves on welded links, called $Υ$ moves, under which the (non extended) Tube map is invariant.

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arXiv2025

The classification of links up to clasp-pass moves

We give a complete classification of links up to clasp-pass moves, which coincides with Habiro's $C_3$-equivalence. We also classify links up to band-pass and band-# moves, which are versions of the usual pass- and #-move, respectively, where each pair of parallel strands belong to the same component. This recovers and generalizes widely a number of partial results in the study of these local moves. The proofs make use of clasper theory.

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arXiv2025

On finite type invariants of welded string links and ribbon tubes

Welded knotted objects are a combinatorial extension of knot theory, which can be used as a tool for studying ribbon surfaces in $4$-space. A finite type invariant theory for ribbon knotted surfaces was developped by Kanenobu, Habiro and Shima, and this paper proposes a study of these invariants, using welded objects. Specifically, we study welded string links up to $w_k$-equivalence, which is an equivalence relation introduced by Yasuhara and the second author in connection with finite type theory. In low degrees, we show that this relation characterizes the information contained by finite type invariants. We also study the algebraic structure of welded string links up to $w_k$-equivalence. All results have direct corollaries for ribbon knotted surfaces.

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arXiv2024

Universal invariants, the Conway polynomial and the Casson-Walker-Lescop invariant

We give a general surgery formula for the Casson-Walker-Lescop invariant of closed 3-manifolds, seen as the leading term of the LMO invariant, in a purely diagrammatic and combinatorial way. This provides a new viewpoint on a formula established by C. Lescop for her extension of the Walker invariant. A central ingredient in our proof is an explicit identification of the coefficients of the Conway polynomial as combinations of coefficients in the Kontsevich integral. This latter result relies on general \lq factorization formulas\rq\, for the Kontsevich integral coefficients.

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arXiv2023

Linking coefficients and the Kontsevich integral

It is well known how the linking number and framing can be extracted from the degree 1 part of the (framed) Kontsevich integral. This note gives a general formula expressing any product of powers of these two invariants as combination of coefficients in the Kontsevich integral. This allows in particular to express the sum of all coefficients of a given degree in terms of the linking coefficients. The proofs are purely combinatorial.

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arXiv2023

Higher order Kirk invariants of link maps

We define numerical link-homotopy invariants of link maps of any number of components, which naturally generalize the Kirk invariant. The Kirk invariant is a link-homotopy invariant of 2-component link maps given by linking numbers of loops based at self-singularities of each component with the other spherical component; our invariants use instead ingredients from Milnor's higher order link invariants, and are extracted from the reduced fundamental groups of the exterior. We provide practical algorithms to compute these invariants from an appropriate cross-section, as well as families of examples that are therewith detected. The main proofs use the combinatorial theory of cut-diagrams previously developed by the authors.

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arXiv2023

Classification of $2$-component virtual links up to $Ξ$-moves

The $Ξ$-move is a local move generated by forbidden moves in virtual knot theory. This move was introduced by Taniguchi and the second author, who showed that it characterizes the odd writhe of virtual knots, which is a fundamental invariant defined by Kauffman. In this paper, we extend this result by classifying $2$-component virtual links up to $Ξ$-moves, using refinements of the odd writhe and linking numbers.

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arXiv2022

k-reduced groups and Milnor invariants

We characterize, in an algebraic and in a diagrammatic way, Milnor string link invariants indexed by sequences where any index appears at most $k$ times, for any fixed $k\ge 1$. The algebraic characterization is given in terms of an Artin-like action on the so-called $k$-reduced free groups; the diagrammatic characterization uses the langage of welded knot theory. The link case is also addressed.

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arXiv2021

Link concordances as surfaces in 4-space and the 4-dimensional Milnor invariants

Fixing two concordant links in $3$--space, we study the set of all embedded concordances between them, as knotted annuli in $4$--space. When regarded up to surface-concordance or link-homotopy, the set $\mathcal{C}(L)$ of concordances from a link $L$ to itself forms a group. In order to investigate these groups, we define Milnor-type invariants of $\mathcal{C}(L)$, which are integers defined modulo a certain indeterminacy given by Milnor invariants of $L$. We show in particular that, for a slice link $L$, these invariants classify $\mathcal{C}(L)$ up to link-homotopy.

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arXiv2020

Characterization of the reduced peripheral system of links

The reduced peripheral system was introduced by Milnor in the fifties for the study of links up to link-homotopy, i.e. up to isotopies and crossing changes within each link component. However, for four or more components, this invariant does not yield a complete link-homotopy invariant. This paper provides two characterizations of links having the same reduced peripheral system: a diagrammatical one, in terms of link diagrams, seen as welded diagrams up to self-virtualization, and a topological one, in terms of ribbon solid tori in 4--space up to ribbon link-homotopy.

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arXiv2019

A linking invariant for algebraic curves

We construct a topological invariant of algebraic plane curves, which is in some sense an adaptation of the linking number of knot theory. This invariant is shown to be a generalization of the I-invariant of line arrangements developed by the first author with Artal and Florens. We give two practical tools for computing this invariant, using a modification of the usual braid monodromy or using the connected numbers introduced by Shirane. As an application, we show that this invariant distinguishes several Zariski pairs, i.e. pairs of curves having same combinatorics, yet different topologies. The former is the well known Zariski pair found by Artal, composed of a smooth cubic with 3 tangent lines at its inflexion points. The latter is formed by a smooth quartic and 3 bitangents.

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arXiv2017

On codimension two embeddings up to link-homotopy

We consider knotted annuli in 4-space, called 2-string-links, which are knotted surfaces in codimension two that are naturally related, via closure operations, to both 2-links and 2-torus links. We classify 2-string-links up to link-homotopy by means of a 4-dimensional version of Milnor invariants. The key to our proof is that any 2-string link is link-homotopic to a ribbon one; this allows to use the homotopy classification obtained in the ribbon case by P. Bellingeri and the authors. Along the way, we give a Roseman-type result for immersed surfaces in 4-space. We also discuss the case of ribbon k-string links, for $k\geq 3$.

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arXiv2017

Arrow calculus for welded and classical links

We develop a calculus for diagrams of knotted objects. We define Arrow presentations, which encode the crossing informations of a diagram into arrows in a way somewhat similar to Gauss diagrams, and more generally w-tree presentations, which can be seen as `higher order Gauss diagrams'. This Arrow calculus is used to develop an analogue of Habiro's clasper theory for welded knotted objects, which contain classical link diagrams as a subset. This provides a 'realization' of Polyak's algebra of arrow diagrams at the welded level, and leads to a characterization of finite type invariants of welded knots and long knots. As a corollary, we recover several topological results due to K. Habiro and A. Shima and to T. Watanabe on knotted surfaces in 4-space. We also classify welded string links up to homotopy, thus recovering a result of the first author with B. Audoux, P. Bellingeri and E. Wagner.

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arXiv2017

Extensions of some classical local moves on knot diagrams

In the present paper, we consider local moves on classical and welded diagrams: (self-)crossing change, (self-)virtualization, virtual conjugation, Delta, fused, band-pass and welded band-pass moves. Interrelationship between these moves is discussed and, for each of these move, we provide an algebraic classification. We address the question of relevant welded extensions for classical moves in the sense that the classical quotient of classical object embeds into the welded quotient of welded objects. As a by-product, we obtain that all of the above local moves are unknotting operations for welded (long) knots. We also mention some topological interpretations for these combinatorial quotients.

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arXiv2016

On Usual, Virtual and Welded knotted objects up to homotopy

We consider several classes of knotted objects, namely usual, virtual and welded pure braids and string links, and two equivalence relations on those objects, induced by either self-crossing changes or self-virtualizations. We provide a number of results which point out the differences between these various notions. The proofs are mainly based on the techniques of Gauss diagram formulae.

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