English

Patterns of the $V_2$-polynomial of knots

Geometric Topology 2026-03-25 v6 High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

Recently, Kashaev and the first author constructed an RR-matrix from a Nichols algebra with an automorphism, that leads, via the Reshetikhin--Turaev functor, to a multivariable polynomial invariant of knots. Applying this to a rank 2 Nichols algebra, results in a sequence VnV_n of 2-variable knot polynomials with integer coefficients, the first polynomial been identified with the Links--Gould polynomial. In this note we present the results of the computation of the VnV_n-polynomials for n=1,2,3,4n=1,2,3,4. This leads to the discovery of emerging patterns, including the genus bound for V2V_2 being an equality for all 352.2 million knots with at most 1919 crossings, as well as unexpected Conway mutations that seem undetected by the VnV_n-polynomials as well as by Heegaard Floer Homology and Khovanov Homology.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2409.03557,
  title  = {Patterns of the $V_2$-polynomial of knots},
  author = {Stavros Garoufalidis and Shana Yunsheng Li},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.03557},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

26 pages, 12 figures. Updated version to include up-to-date results for all 352.2 million knots with at most 19 crossings. To appear in Experimental Mathematics