Related papers: A user's guide to basic knot and link theory
In this paper we define and give examples of a family of polynomial invariants of virtual knots and links. They arise by considering certain 2$\times$2 matrices with entries in a possibly non-commutative ring, for example the quaternions.…
The fundamental problem of knot theory is to know whether two knots are equivalent or not. As a tool to prove that two knots are different, mathematicians have developed various invariants. Knots invariants are just functions that can be…
An elementary introduction to knot theory and its link to quantum field theory is presented with an intention to provide details of some basic calculations in the subject, which are not easily found in texts. Study of Chern-Simons theory…
The present paper is an introduction to a combinatorial theory arising as a natural generalisation of classical and virtual knot theory. There is a way to encode links by a class of `realisable' graphs. When passing to generic graphs with…
We show that the Vassiliev invariants of orders $\leq n$ of a knot K, are obstructions to finding a regular Seifert surface, S, whose complement looks "simple" (e.g. like the complement of a disc) to the lower central series of its…
Virtual knot theory is a generalization (discovered by the author in 1996) of knot theory to the study of all oriented Gauss codes. (Classical knot theory is a study of planar Gauss codes.) Graph theory studies non-planar graphs via…
In this paper we construct a multivariable link invariant arising from the quantum group associated to the special linear Lie superalgebra sl(2|1). The usual quantum group invariant of links associated to (generic) representations of…
A `total Chern class' invariant of knots is defined. This is a universal Vassiliev invariant which is integral `on the level of Lie algebras' but it is not expressible as an integer sum of diagrams. The construction is motivated by…
We show that a variation of Milnor's $\bar\mu$-invariants, the so-called Campbell-Hausdorff invariants introduced recently by Stefan Papadima, are of finite type with respect to {\it marked singular links}. These link invariants are…
We introduce stable equivalence classes of oriented links in orientable three-manifolds that are orientation $I$-bundles over closed but not necessarily orientable surfaces. We call these twisted links, and show that they subsume the…
Milnor's $\bar{\mu}$-invariants of links in the $3$-sphere $S^3$ vanish on any link concordant to a boundary link. In particular, they are trivial on any knot in $S^3$. Here we consider knots in thickened surfaces $\Sigma \times [0,1]$,…
We introduce an invariant of alternating knots and links (called here WRP), namely a pair of integer polynomials associated with their two checkerboard planar graphs from their minimal diagram. We prove that the invariant is well-defined…
In this paper, we use skein-theoretic techniques to classify all virtual knot polynomials and trivalent graph invariants with certain smallness conditions. The first half of the paper classifies all virtual knot polynomials giving…
We introduce a framework to analyze knots and links in an unmarked solid torus. We discuss invariants that detect when such links are equivalent under an ambient homeomorphism, and show that the multivariable Alexander polynomial is such in…
In~\cite{Kim} the author generalized the Conway algebra and constructed the invariant valued in the generalized Conway algebra defined by applying two skein relations to crossings, which is called a generalized Conway type invariant. The…
We introduce a new numerical invariant of knots and links from the descending diagrams. It is considered to live between the unknotting number and the bridge number.
In this chapter (Chapter V) we present several results which demonstrate a close connection and useful exchange of ideas between graph theory and knot theory. These disciplines were shown to be related from the time of Tait (if not Listing)…
This paper has two-fold goal: it provides gentle introduction to Knot Theory starting from 3-coloring, the concept introduced by R. Fox to allow undergraduate students to see that the trefoil knot is non-trivial, and ending with statistical…
I present a summary of the recent progress made in field and string theory which has led to a reformulation of quantum-group polynomial invariants for knots and links into new polynomial invariants whose coefficients can be described in…
The expectation value of a Wilson loop in a Chern--Simons theory is a knot invariant. Its skein relations have been derived in a variety of ways, including variational methods in which small deformations of the loop are made and the changes…