Quandle homotopy invariants of knotted surfaces

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 (generalized) quandle cocycle invariants. We compute the second and third homotopy groups, with respect to “regular Alexander quandles”. As a corollary, any quandle cocycle invariant using the dihedral quandle of prime order is a scalar multiple of Mochizuki 3-cocycle invariant. As another result, we determine the third quandle homology group of the dihedral quandle of odd order.     

The Homology of Free Racks and Quandles

We prove that rack (resp. quandle) homology of the free rack (resp. free quandle) is trivial.     

Distributive Products and Their Homology

We develop a theory of sets with distributive products (called shelves and multi-shelves) and of their homology. We relate the shelf homology to the rack and quandle homology.     

Homology with Models and Tor

We consider the extension of the notion of a projective module to that of a projective functor relative to a model set (as in Dold, MacLane, Oberst, 1967). Then taking projective resolutions of functors, we consider the usual associated homology.We show that in some cases, including the classical simplicial homology of topological spaces, the model set can be replaced by a model set having only one element. We show that when the model set consists of a single element the homology modules can be interpreted as values of the Torsion functor. In the case of simplicial homology of topological spaces these Tors will be shown to be analogous to the Tors which occur in group homology.     

On the structure of Hom quandles

We continue the study of the quandle of homomorphisms into a medial quandle begun in [1]. We show that it suffices to consider only medial source quandles, and therefore the structure theorem of [10] provides a characterization of the Hom quandle. In the particular case when the target is 2-reductive this characterization takes on a simple form that makes it easy to count and determine the structure of the Hom quandle.     

Three geometric applications of quandle homology

In this paper we describe three geometric applications of quandle homology. We show that it gives obstructions to tangle embeddings, provides the lower bound for the 4-move distance between links, and can be used in determining periodicity of links.     

The Betti numbers of some finite racks

We show that the lower bounds for Betti numbers given in (J. Pure Appl. Algebra 157 (2001) 135) are equalities for a class of racks that includes dihedral and Alexander racks. We confirm a conjecture from the same paper by defining a splitting for the short exact sequence of quandle chain complexes. We define isomorphisms between Alexander racks of certain forms, and we also list the second and third homology groups of some dihedral and Alexander quandles.     

Quandles derived from dynamical systems and subsets which are closed under quandle operations

A quandle is a set with a binary operation satisfying certain conditions related to Reidemeister moves in knot theory. First we give an example of a quandle with subsets which are not subquandles but closed under the quandle operation. We introduce a method to produce a quandle from an invertible dynamical system. Our example is generalized to such dynamical quandles.     

Higher commutators in the loop space homology of K-products

We consider a problem of calculating the loop space homology for so-called polyhedral products defined by an arbitrary simplicial complex K. A presentation of this homology algebra is obtained from the homology of the complements of diagonal subspace arrangements, which, in turn, is calculated using an infinite resolution of the exterior Stanley-Reisner algebra. We get an explicit presentation of the loop homology algebra for polyhedral products for classes of simplicial complexes such as flag complexes and the duals of sequentially Cohen-Macaulay complexes in terms of higher commutator products. We give a construction for the iteration of higher products and discuss the relationship between this problem and problems in commutative algebra.     

Bredon homology and ramified covering G-maps

Let G be a finite group. The objective of this paper is twofold. First we prove that the cellular Bredon homology groups with coefficients in an arbitrary coefficient system M are isomorphic to the homotopy groups of certain topological abelian group. And second, we study ramified covering G-maps of simplicial sets and of simplicial complexes. As an application, we construct a transfer for them in Bredon homology, when M is a Mackey functor. We also show that the Bredon-Illman homology with coefficients in M satisfies the equivariant weak homotopy equivalence axiom in the category of G-spaces.     

Construction of Right Universal Multiplication Groups of Right Quasigroups

The right universal multiplication group of a quandle in the variety of all quandles is constructable from the right Cayley graph of that quandle.AMS Subject Classification (2000), 20N     

General constructions of biquandles and their symmetries

Biquandles are algebraic objects with two binary operations whose axioms encode the generalized Reidemeister moves for virtual knots and links. These objects also provide set theoretic solutions of the well-known Yang-Baxter equation. The first half of this paper proposes some natural constructions of biquandles from groups and from their simpler counterparts, namely, quandles. We completely determine all words in the free group on two generators that give rise to (bi)quandle structures on all groups. We give some novel constructions of biquandles on unions and products of quandles, including what we refer as the holomorph biquandle of a quandle. These constructions give a wealth of solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation. We also show that for nice quandle coverings a biquandle structure on the base can be lifted to a biquandle structure on the covering. In the second half of the paper, we determine automorphism groups of these biquandles in terms of associated quandles showing elegant relationships between the symmetries of the underlying structures.     

Homology Groups of Simplicial Complements

This paper deals with homology groups induced by the exterior algebra generated by the simplicial compliment of a simplicial complex K. By using ech homology and Alexander duality, the authors prove that there is a duality between these homology groups and the simplicial homology groups of K.     

Homotopy type of circle graph complexes motivated by extreme Khovanov homology

It was proven by González-Meneses, Manchón and Silvero that the extreme Khovanov homology of a link diagram is isomorphic to the reduced (co)homology of the independence simplicial complex obtained from a bipartite circle graph constructed from the diagram. In this paper, we conjecture that this simplicial complex is always homotopy equivalent to a wedge of spheres. In particular, its homotopy type, if not contractible, would be a link invariant (up to suspension), and it would imply that the extreme Khovanov homology of any link diagram does not contain torsion. We prove the conjecture in many special cases and find it convincing to generalize it to every circle graph (intersection graph of chords in a circle). In particular, we prove it for the families of cactus, outerplanar, permutation and non-nested graphs. Conversely, we also give a method for constructing a permutation graph whose independence simplicial complex is homotopy equivalent to any given finite wedge of spheres. We also present some combinatorial results on the homotopy type of finite simplicial complexes and a theorem shedding light on previous results by Csorba, Nagel and Reiner, Jonsson and Barmak. We study the implications of our results to knot theory; more precisely, we compute the real-extreme Khovanov homology of torus links T(3, q) and obtain examples of H-thick knots whose extreme Khovanov homology groups are separated either by one or two gaps as long as desired.     

Topology of matching,chessboard, and general bounded degree graph complexes

We survey results and techniques in the topological study of simplicial complexes of (di-, multi-, hyper-)graphs whose node degrees are bounded from above. These complexes have arisen in a variety of contexts in the literature. The most well-known examples are the matching complex and the chessboard complex. The topics covered here include computation of Betti numbers, representations of the symmetric group on rational homology, torsion in integral homology, homotopy properties, and connections with other fields.In memory of Gian-Carlo Rota     

Enveloping monoidal quandles

A quandle is a set with a self-distributive binary operation satisfying a certain condition. Here we construct a monoid (a semi-group with the identity) associated with a quandle. This monoid has a structure of a quandle, which contains the original quandle as a sub-quandle. We call it the enveloping monoidal quandle. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the notion of the enveloping monoidal quandle, and to investigate it.     

Persistent Intersection Homology

The theory of intersection homology was developed to study the singularities of a topologically stratified space. This paper incorporates this theory into the already developed framework of persistent homology. We demonstrate that persistent intersection homology gives useful information about the relationship between an embedded stratified space and its singularities. We give an algorithm for the computation of the persistent intersection homology groups of a filtered simplicial complex equipped with a stratification by subcomplexes, and we prove its correctness. We also derive, from Poincaré Duality, some structural results about persistent intersection homology.     

Enriched homology and cohomology modules of simiplicial complexes

For a simplicial complex Δ on {1, 2,…, n} we define enriched homology and cohomology modules. They are graded modules over k[x ₁,…, x _n ] whose ranks are equal to the dimensions of the reduced homology and cohomology groups. We characterize Cohen-Macaulay, l-Cohen-Macaulay, Buchsbaum, and Gorenstein^* complexes Δ, and also orientable homology manifolds in terms of the enriched modules. We introduce the notion of girth for simplicial complexes and make a conjecture relating the girth to invariants of the simplicial complex. We also put strong vanishing conditions on the enriched homology modules and describe the simplicial complexes we then get. They are block designs and include Steiner systems S(c, d, n) and cyclic polytopes of even dimension. This paper is to a large extent a complete rewriting of a previous preprint, “Hierarchies of simplicial complexes via the BGG-correspondence”. Also Propositions 1.7 and 3.1 have been generalized to cell complexes in [11].     

Dihedral homology and Hermitian K-theory

We establish a rational isomorphism between certain relative versions of Hermitian K-theory and the dihedral homology of simplicial Hermitian rings. This is the dihedral analogue of Goodwillie's result for cyclic homology and algebraic K-theory. In particular, we describe involutions on (negative) cyclic homology and the K-theory of simplicial rings. We show that Goodwillie's map from K-theory to negative cyclic homology can be chosen to preserve involutions. By work of Burghelea and Fiedorowicz the invariants of the involution on K-theory can be identified with symmetric Hermitian K-theory. Finally, we show how the author's chain complex defining dihedral homology can be extended to the left to capture the invariants of the involution on negative cyclic homology.Supported by New Mexico State University, grant No. RC90-051.     

On f-Vectors and Relative Homology

We find strong necessary conditions on the f-vectors, Betti sequences, and relative Betti sequence of a pair of simplicial complexes. We also present an example showing that these conditions are not sufficient. If only the difference between two Betti sequences is specified, and not the individual Betti sequences, then the characterization is complete, and the characterization of all pairs of simplicial complexes matches the characterization of pairs of near-cones. Our necessary conditions rely upon a combinatorial decomposition of pairs of simplicial complexes that reflects the homology and relative homology of the complexes.