English

The flip map and involutions on Khovanov homology

Geometric Topology 2026-03-06 v2

Abstract

The flip symmetry on knot diagrams induces an involution on Khovanov homology. We prove that this involution is determined by its behavior on unlinks; in particular, it is the identity map when working over F2\mathbb{F}_2. This confirms a folklore conjecture on the triviality of the Viro flip map. As a corollary, we prove that the symmetries on the transvergent and intravergent diagrams of a strongly invertible knot induce the same involution on Khovanov homology. We also apply similar techniques to study the half sweep-around map.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.00824,
  title  = {The flip map and involutions on Khovanov homology},
  author = {Daren Chen and Hongjian Yang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.00824},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

28 pages. v2: added Proposition 7.3; minor changes