Narrow Results

This paper gives an alternate definition of the Affine Index Polynomial (called the Wriggle Polynomial) using virtual linking numbers and explores applications of this polynomial. In particular, it proves the Cosmetic Crossing Change Conjecture for odd virtual knots and pure virtual knots. It also demonstrates that the polynomial can detect mutations by positive rotation and proves it cannot detect mutations by positive reflection. Finally it exhibits a pair of mutant knots that can be distinguished by a type 2 vassiliev invariant coming from the polynomial.

In this paper, we consider biquandle colorings for knotoids in ${ℝ}^2$ or $S^2$, and we construct several coloring invariants for knotoids derived as enhancements of the biquandle counting invariant. We first enhance the biquandle counting invariant by using a matrix constructed by utilizing the orientation a knotoid diagram is endowed with. We generalize Niebrzydowski’s biquandle longitude invariant for virtual long knots to obtain new invariants for knotoids. We show that biquandle invariants can detect mirror images of knotoids and show that our enhancements are proper in the sense that knotoids which are not distinguished by the counting invariant are distinguished by our enhancements.

If A is an abelian quandle and Q is a quandle, the hom set Hom(Q, A) of quandle homomorphisms from Q to A has a natural quandle structure. We exploit this fact to enhance the quandle counting invariant, providing an example of links with the same counting invariant values but distinguished by the hom quandle structure. We generalize the result to the case of biquandles, collect observations and results about abelian quandles and the hom quandle, and show that the category of abelian quandles is symmetric monoidal closed.

Biquandle brackets are a type of quantum enhancement of the biquandle counting invariant for oriented knots and links, defined by a set of skein relations with coefficients which are functions of biquandle colors at a crossing. In this paper, we use biquandle brackets to enhance the biquandle counting matrix invariant defined by the first two authors in (N. Gügümcü and S. Nelson, Biquandle coloring invariants of knotoids, J. Knot Theory Ramif.28(4) (2019) 1950029). We provide examples to illustrate the method of calculation and to show that the new invariants are stronger than the previous ones. As an application we show that the trace of the biquandle bracket matrix is an invariant of the virtual closure of a knotoid.

As a generalization of quandles, biquandles have given many invariants of classical/surface/virtual links. In this paper, we show that the fundamental quandle $Q(L)$ of any classical/surface link $L$ detects the fundamental biquandle $\mathrm{\text{BQ}}(L)$; more precisely, there exists a functor ${ℬ}$ from the category of quandles to that of biquandles such that ${ℬ}(Q(L))\cong \mathrm{\text{BQ}}(L)$. Then, we can expect invariants from biquandles to be reduced to those from quandles. In fact, we introduce a right-adjoint functor ${𝒬}$ of ${ℬ}$, which implies that the coloring number of a biquandle $X$ is equal to that of the quandle ${𝒬}(X)$.

We identify a subcategory of biracks which define counting invariants of unoriented links, which we call involutory biracks. In particular, involutory biracks of birack rank N = 1 are biquandles, which we call bikei or 双圭. We define counting invariants of unoriented classical and virtual links using finite involutory biracks, and we give an example of a non-involutory birack whose counting invariant detects the non-invertibility of a virtual knot.

We introduce a new class of quantum enhancements we call biquandle brackets, which are customized skein invariants for biquandle colored links. Quantum enhancements of biquandle counting invariants form a class of knot and link invariants that includes biquandle cocycle invariants and skein invariants such as the HOMFLY-PT polynomial as special cases, providing an explicit unification of these apparently unrelated types of invariants. We provide examples demonstrating that the new invariants are not determined by the biquandle counting invariant, the knot quandle or the knot group.

In this paper, we introduce the (co)homology group of a multiple conjugation biquandle. It is the (co)homology group of the prismatic chain complex, which is related to the homology of foams introduced by J. S. Carter, modulo a certain subchain complex. We construct invariants for $S^1$-oriented handlebody-links using $2$-cocycles. When a multiple conjugation biquandle $X\times {\mathbb{Z}}_{type{X}_Y}$ is obtained from a biquandle $X$ using $n$-parallel operations, we provide a $2$-cocycle (or $3$-cocycle) of the multiple conjugation biquandle $X\times {\mathbb{Z}}_{type{X}_Y}$ from a $2$-cocycle (or $3$-cocycle) of the biquandle $X$ equipped with an $X$-set $Y$.