Related papers: Conway polynomial and Magnus expansion
We adapt Thistlethwaite's alternating tangle decomposition of a knot diagram to identify the potential extreme terms in its bracket polynomial, and give a simple combinatorial calculation for their coefficients, based on the intersection…
Musical chords, harmonies or melodies in Just Intonation have note frequencies which are described by a base frequency multiplied by rational numbers. For any local section, these notes can be converted to some base frequency multiplied by…
We associate to every positive braid a braid monodromy group, generalizing the geometric monodromy group of an isolated plane curve singularity. If the closure of the braid is a knot, we identify the corresponding group with a framed…
A knot diagram has an associated looped interlacement graph, obtained from the intersection graph of the Gauss diagram by attaching loops to the vertices that correspond to negative crossings. This construction suggests an extension of the…
We consider Conway polynomials of two-bridge links as Euler continuant polynomials. As a consequence, we obtain new and elementary proofs of classical Murasugi's 1958 alternating theorem and Hartley's 1979 trapezoidal theorem. We give a…
We construct a novel invariant of braids and knots, secant-quandle (SQ),with generic secants serving as generators and generic horizontal trisecants serving as relations, i.e., $SQ = \Gamma \left< \mathcal{S}_M\mid…
We construct new knot polynomials. Let $V$ be the standard solid torus in 3-space and let $pr$ be its standard projection onto an annulus. Let $M$ be the space of all smooth oriented knots in $V$ such that the restriction of $pr$ is an…
Extending the methods from our previous work on quantum knots and quantum graphs, we describe a general procedure for quantizing a large class of mathematical structures which includes, for example, knots, graphs, groups, algebraic…
We study the growth of the values of binary quadratic forms $Q$ on a binary planar tree as it was described by Conway. We show that the corresponding Lyapunov exponents $\Lambda_Q(x)$ as a function of the path determined by $x\in \mathbb…
In this article, we explore a polynomial invariant for Legendrian knots which is a natural extension of Jones polynomial for (topological) knots. To this end, a new type of skein relation is introduced for the front projections of…
We extend knot contact homology to a theory over the ring $\mathbb{Z}[\lambda^{\pm 1},\mu^{\pm 1}]$, with the invariant given topologically and combinatorially. The improved invariant, which is defined for framed knots in $S^3$ and can be…
We define and study a bigraded knot invariant whose Euler characteristic is the Alexander polynomial, closely connected to knot Floer homology. The invariant is the homology of a chain complex whose generators correspond to Kauffman states…
We develop a gauge theory or theory of bundles and connections on them at the level of braids and tangles. Extending recent algebraic work, we provide now a fully diagrammatic treatment of principal bundles, a theory of global gauge…
We continue the study of the genus of knot diagrams, deriving a new description of generators using Hirasawa's algorithm. This description leads to good estimates on the maximal number of crossings of generators and allows us to complete…
We consider the factorization of permutations into bandwidth 1 permutations, which are products of mutually nonadjacent simple transpositions. We exhibit an upper bound on the minimal number of such factors and thus prove a conjecture of…
We use the relation between the quantum su(2) R-matrix and the Burau representation of the braid group in order to study the structure of the colored Jones polynomial of links. We show that similarly to the case of a knot, the colored Jones…
The Tutte polynomial is the most general invariant of matroids and graphs that can be computed recursively by deleting and contracting edges. We generalize this invariant to any class of combinatorial objects with deletion and contraction…
In recent work with J.Mostovoy and T.Stanford,the author found that for every natural number n, a certain polynomial in the coefficients of the Conway polynomial is a primitive integer-valued degree n Vassiliev invariant, but that modulo 2,…
In this paper, we generalize the principle of the Long-Moody construction for representations of braid groups to other groups, such as mapping class groups of surfaces. Namely, we introduce endofunctors over a functor category that encodes…
Motivated by circle graphs, and the enumeration of Euler circuits, we define a one-variable ``interlace polynomial'' for any graph. The polynomial satisfies a beautiful and unexpected reduction relation, quite different from the cut and…