English

Khovanov homotopy calculations using flow category calculus

Geometric Topology 2017-10-06 v1 Algebraic Topology

Abstract

The Lipshitz-Sarkar stable homotopy link invariant defines Steenrod squares on the Khovanov cohomology of a link. Lipshitz-Sarkar constructed an algorithm for computing the first two Steenrod squares. We develop a new algorithm which implements the flow category simplification techniques previously defined by the authors and Dan Jones. We give a purely combinatorial approach to calculating the second Steenrod square and Bockstein homomorphisms in Khovanov cohomology, and flow categories in general. The new method has been implemented in a computer program by the third author and applied to large classes of knots and links. Several homotopy types not previously witnessed are observed, and more evidence is obtained that Khovanov stable homotopy types do not contain CP2\mathbb{C} P^2 as a wedge summand. In fact, we are led by our calculations to formulate an even stronger conjecture in terms of Z/2\mathbb{Z}/2 summands of the cohomology.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1710.01857,
  title  = {Khovanov homotopy calculations using flow category calculus},
  author = {Andrew Lobb and Patrick Orson and Dirk Schuetz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.01857},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

37 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-22T22:04:13.390Z