Fundamentals of Kauffman bracket skein modules

Jozef H. Przytycki

Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · math/9809113

Fundamentals of Kauffman bracket skein modules

Jozef H. Przytycki

View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Skein modules are the main objects of an algebraic topology based on knots (or position). In the same spirit as Leibniz we would call our approach "algebra situs." When looking at the panorama of skein modules we see, past the rolling hills of homologies and homotopies, distant mountains - the Kauffman bracket skein module, and farther off in the distance skein modules based on other quantum invariants. We concentrate here on the basic properties of the Kauffman bracket skein module; properties fundamental in further development of the theory. In particular we consider the relative Kauffman bracket skein module, and we analyze skein modules of I-bundles over surfaces.

Explore related subjects

math.GT math.QA

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeX RIS

Jozef H. Przytycki. 1998-09-21. Fundamentals of Kauffman bracket skein modules. https://arxiv.org/abs/math/9809113

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Hyperbolic links associated to Hamiltonian subgraphs in simple $3$-polytopes

We build a large family of hyperbolic links with an explicit decomposition of the complement into right-angled hyperbolic polytopes of finite volume. Namely, in a series of papers A.D.Mednykn and A.Yu.Vesnin introduced a construction that for a given right-angled polytope $P$ in geometry $\mathbb L^3$, $\mathbb R^3$, $\mathbb S^3$, $\mathbb L^2\times \mathbb R$, $\mathbb S^2\times \mathbb R$ and a Hamiltonian cycle, theta-subgraph or $K_4$-subgraph $Γ$ in the $1$-skeleton of $P$ builds a geometric $3$-manifold $N(P,Γ)$ with an involution $τ$ such that $N(P,Γ)/\langleτ\rangle\simeq S^3$. The brach set of the corresponding $2$-sheeted branched covering $N(P,Γ)\to S^3$ is a link $C_Γ\subset S^3$ consisting of trivially embedded circles. This construction reformulated in the language of toric topology works for such a subgraph $Γ$ in any simple $3$-polytope $P$ and gives a topological $3$-manifold $N(P,Γ)$. We give a criterion when $S^3\setminus C_Γ$ has a complete hyperbolic structure of finite volume and generalize this criterion to similar links in $3$-manifolds different from $S^3$. We prove that hyperbolic links $C_Γ$ are parametrized by nonselfcrossing Eulerian cycles, Eulerian theta-subgraphs and Eulerian $K_4$-subgraphs in hyperbolic right-angled $3$-polytopes of finite volume in $\mathbb L^3$ with $0$, $2$ or $4$ finite vertices. The complement $S^3\setminus C_Γ$ is glued of $4$, $8$ or $16$ copies of the corresponding right-angled polytope. We give a criterion when the link $C_Γ$ consists of mutually unlinked circles and prove that if such a link is nontrivial, then it contains the Borromean rings. The latter problem is motivated by the Efimov effect in quantum mechanics.

math.GT↗

arXiv2026

Knots and the Sierpinski Tetrahedron

In this paper we prove that there are infinitely many knots that cannot be embedded in the 1-skeletons of the finite iterations of the Sierpinski tetrahedron fractal. We do this by proving that such an embedding induces a sphere decomposition of weight at most 6. There are infinitely many knots with spherewidth greater than this.