English

A Formula for the Jones-Wenzl Projections

Quantum Algebra 2015-03-03 v1

Abstract

I present a method of calculating the coefficients appearing in the Jones-Wenzl projections in the Temperley-Lieb algebras. It essentially repeats the approach of Frenkel and Khovanov published in 1997. I wrote this note mid-2002, not knowing about their work, but then set it aside upon discovering their article. Recently I decided to dust it off and place it on the arXiv --- hoping the self-contained and detailed proof I give here may be useful. It's also been cited a number of times, so I thought it best to give it a permanent home. The proof is based upon a simplification of the Wenzl recurrence relation. I give an example calculation, and compare this method to the formula announced by Ocneanu and partially proved by Reznikoff. I also describe certain moves on diagrams which modify their coefficients in a simple way.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1503.00384,
  title  = {A Formula for the Jones-Wenzl Projections},
  author = {Scott Morrison},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1503.00384},
  year   = {2015}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T08:41:19.064Z