Related papers: Quandle presentations of surface knots in 4-manifo…
A surface-link is a closed surface embedded in the 4-space, possibly disconnected or non-orientable. Every surface-link can be presented by the plat closure of a braided surface, which we call a plat form presentation. The knot symmetric…
The fundamental quandle is a complete invariant for unoriented tame knots \cite{JO, Ma} and non-split links \cite{FR}. The proof involves proving a relationship between the components of the fundamental quandle and the cosets of the…
To better understand the fundamental quandle of a knot or link, it can be useful to look at finite quotients of the quandle. One such quotient is the $n$-quandle (or, when $n=2$, the {\em involutory} quandle). Hoste and Shanahan \cite{HS2}…
Meier and Zupan showed that every surface in the four-sphere admits a bridge trisection and can therefore be represented by three simple tangles. This raises the possibility of applying methods from link homology to knotted surfaces. We use…
The fundamental quandle is a powerful invariant of knots, links and spatial graphs, but it is often difficult to determine whether two quandles are isomorphic. One approach is to look at quotients of the quandle, such as the $n$-quandle…
Meier and Zupan introduced bridge trisections of surface links in $S^4$ as a 4-dimensional analogue to bridge decompositions of classical links, which gives a numerical invariant of surface links called the bridge number. We prove that…
State-sum invariants for knotted curves and surfaces using quandle cohomology were introduced by Laurel Langford and the authors in math.GT/9903135 In this paper we present methods to compute the invariants and sample computations. Computer…
The 2-twist spun trefoil is an example of a sphere that is knotted in 4-dimensional space. Here this example is shown to be distinct from the same sphere with the reversed orientation. To demonstrate this fact a state-sum invariant for…
The knot group is the fundamental group of a knot or link complement. A necessary and sufficient conditions for a group to be realized as the knot group of some link was provided. This result was shown using the closed braid method.…
Quandle coloring quivers are directed graph-valued invariants of oriented knots and links, defined using a choice of finite quandle $X$ and set $S\subset\mathrm{Hom}(X,X)$ of endomorphisms. From a quandle coloring quiver, a polynomial knot…
A symmetric quandle is a quandle with a good involution. For a knot in \$R^3\$, a knotted surface in \$R^4\$ or an \$n\$-manifold knot in \$R^{n+2}\$, the knot symmetric quandle is defined. We introduce the notion of a symmetric quandle…
Given a finite quandle, we introduce a quandle homotopy invariant of knotted surfaces in the 4-sphere, modifying that of classical links. This invariant is valued in the third homotopy group of the quandle space, and is universal among the…
By using the cohomology theory of quandles, quandle cocycle invariants and shadow quandle cocycle invariants are defined for oriented links and surface-links via broken surface diagrams. By using symmetric quandles, symmetric quandle…
Bridge multisections are combinatorial descriptions of surface links in 4-space using tuples of trivial tangles. They were introduced by Islambouli, Karimi, Lambert-Cole, and Meier to study curves in rational surfaces. In this paper, we…
We have a knot quandle and a fundamental class as invariants for a surface-knot. These invariants can be defined for a classical knot in a similar way, and it is known that the pair of them is a complete invariant for classical knots. In…
We recall Petit's construction of "dichromatic" invariants of 4-manifolds computed from Kirby diagrams using a nested pair of ribbon fusion categories $ B \subset C $ as initial data. Along the way we prove a lemma that fits the use of…
In this article, we propose a new approach for describing and understanding knots and links in a 3-manifold through the use of an embedded non-orientable surface. Specifically, we define a plat-like representation based on this…
We prove that every smoothly embedded surface in a 4--manifold can be isotoped to be in bridge position with respect to a given trisection of the ambient 4--manifold; that is, after isotopy, the surface meets components of the trisection in…
Given a closed four-manifold $X$ with an indefinite intersection form, we consider smoothly embedded surfaces in $X \setminus $int$(B^4)$, with boundary a knot $K \subset S^3$. We give several methods to bound the genus of such surfaces in…
The fundamental quandle is a powerful invariant of knots and links, but it is difficult to describe in detail. It is often useful to look at quotients of the quandle, especially finite quotients. One natural quotient introduced by Joyce is…