Related papers: Knot contact homology, string topology, and the co…
The conormal lift of a link $K$ in $\R^3$ is a Legendrian submanifold $\Lambda_K$ in the unit cotangent bundle $U^* \R^3$ of $\R^3$ with contact structure equal to the kernel of the Liouville form. Knot contact homology, a topological link…
For a smooth compact submanifold $K$ of a Riemannian manifold $Q$, its unit conormal bundle $\Lambda_K$ is a Legendrian submanifold of the unit cotangent bundle of $Q$ with a canonical contact structure. Using pseudo-holomorphic curve…
Let $K_0$ and $K$ be knots in $\mathbb{R}^3$. Suppose that by a compactly supported Hamiltonian isotopy on $T^*\mathbb{R}^3$, the conormal bundle of $K_0$ is isotopic to a Lagrangian submanifold which intersects the zero section cleanly…
Fix a knot $K_0$ in $\mathbb{R}^3$ and consider a Lagrangian submanifold $L$ of $T^*\mathbb{R}^3$ that is isotopic to the conormal bundle of $K_0$ by a compactly supported Hamiltonian isotopy and intersects the zero section $\mathbb{R}^3$…
We apply the conormal construction to a hyperbolic knot $K \subset S^3$, and study the sutured contact manifold $(V, \xi)$ obtained by taking the complement of a standard neighbourhood of the unit conormal $\La_K \subset (ST^*S^3,…
For any compact connected submanifold $K$ of $\mathbb{R}^n$, let $\Lambda_K$ denote its unit conormal bundle, which is a Legendrian submanifold of the unit cotangent bundle of $\mathbb{R}^n$. In this paper, we give examples of pairs…
Given a thin torus $T_K$ around a knot $K\subset \mathbb{R}^3$, we construct Morse models of cord algebra $Cord(T_K)$ with $\mathbb{Z}$ and loop space coefficients. Using the Multiple time scale dynamics we identify $Cord(T_K; \mathbb{Z})$…
Knot contact homology is an invariant of knots derived from Legendrian contact homology which has numerous connections to the knot group. We use basic properties of knot groups to prove that knot contact homology detects every torus knot.…
We summarize recent work on a combinatorial knot invariant called knot contact homology. We also discuss the origins of this invariant in symplectic topology, via holomorphic curves and a conormal bundle naturally associated to the knot.
We construct an enhanced version of knot contact homology, and show that we can deduce from it the group ring of the knot group together with the peripheral subgroup. In particular, it completely determines a knot up to smooth isotopy. The…
We define a coalgebra structure for open strings transverse to any framed codimension 2 submanifold. When the submanifold is a knot in R^3, we show this structure recovers a specialization of the Ng cord algebra, a non-trivial knot…
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…
Knot contact homology is an ambient isotopy invariant of knots and links in $\mathbb R^3$. The purpose of this paper is to extend this definition to an ambient isotopy invariant of tangles and prove that gluing of tangles gives a gluing…
Let $K$ be a knot in $\mathbb{R}^3$ which has the $(2,q)$-torus knot for $q\neq \pm 1$ or the figure-eight knot as a component of connected sum. For its conormal bundle $L_K$ in $T^*\mathbb{R}^3$, we show that there is no compactly…
We study the connection between topological strings and contact homology recently proposed in the context of knot invariants. In particular, we establish the proposed relation between the Gromov-Witten disk amplitudes of a Lagrangian…
We consider S^1-families of Legendrian knots in the standard contact R^3. We define the monodromy of such a loop, which is an automorphism of the Chekanov-Eliashberg contact homology of the starting (and ending) point. We prove this…
We present a topological interpretation of knot and braid contact homology in degree zero, in terms of cords and skein relations. This interpretation allows us to extend the knot invariant to embedded graphs and higher-dimensional knots. We…
If a Legendrian knot $\Lambda$ in the standard contact 3-sphere bounds an orientable exact Lagrangian surface $\Sigma$ in the standard symplectic 4-ball, then the genus of $\Sigma$ is equal to the slice genus of (the smooth knot underlying)…
We introduce topological invariants of knots and braid conjugacy classes, in the form of differential graded algebras, and present an explicit combinatorial formulation for these invariants. The algebras conjecturally give the relative…
Knot contact homology studies symplectic and contact geometric properties of conormals of knots in 3-manifolds using holomorphic curve techniques. It has connections to both mathematical and physical theories. On the mathematical side, we…