English

On Vassiliev invariants of order two for string links

Geometric Topology 2009-09-29 v2

Abstract

We show that the Casson knot invariant, linking number and Milnor's triple linking number, together with a certain 2-string link invariant V2V_2, are necessary and sufficient to express any string link Vassiliev invariant of order two. Explicit combinatorial formulas are given for these invariants. This result is applied to the theory of claspers for string links.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0402036,
  title  = {On Vassiliev invariants of order two for string links},
  author = {Jean-Baptiste Meilhan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0402036},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

18 pages. Typos and mistakes corrected. To appear in J. Knot Th. Ramifications