English

On mutation and Khovanov homology

Geometric Topology 2009-04-22 v2

Abstract

It is conjectured that the Khovanov homology of a knot is invariant under mutation. In this paper, we review the spanning tree complex for Khovanov homology, and reformulate this conjecture using a matroid obtained from the Tait graph (checkerboard graph) G of a knot diagram K. The spanning trees of G provide a filtration and a spectral sequence that converges to the reduced Khovanov homology of K. We show that the E_2-term of this spectral sequence is a matroid invariant and hence invariant under mutation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0801.4937,
  title  = {On mutation and Khovanov homology},
  author = {Abhijit Champanerkar and Ilya Kofman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0801.4937},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

Revised and expanded with a review of the spanning tree complex. To appear in Communications in Contemporary Mathematics, special volume in memory of Xiao-Song Lin. 18 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-21T10:08:24.007Z