A relation between the LG polynomial and the Kauffman polynomial

We give an explicit formula for the fact given by Links and Gould that a one variable reduction of the LG polynomial coincides with a one variable reduction of the Kauffman polynomial. This implies that the crossing number of an adequate link may be obtained from the LG polynomial by using a result of Thistlethwaite. We also give some evaluations of the LG polynomial.     

Braiding a link with a fixed closed braid

We show that every oriented link diagram with a closed braid diagram as a sublink diagram can be deformed into a closed braid diagram by a deformation keeping the sublink diagram and, under a mild condition, the number of Seifert circles fixed. As an application, we give an upper bound for the braid index of the link obtained by reversing the orientation of its sublink by using only the information of an original link.     

A formula for the braid index of links

Morton and Franks–Williams independently gave a lower bound for the braid index b(L) of a link L in S³ in terms of the v-span of the Homfly-pt polynomial P_L(v,z) of L: . Up to now, many classes of knots and links satisfying the equality of this Morton–Franks–Williams's inequality have been founded. In this paper, we give a new such a class of knots and links and make an explicit formula for determining the braid index of knots and links that belong to the class . This gives simultaneously a new class of knots and links satisfying the Jones conjecture which says that the algebraic crossing number in a minimal braid representation is a link invariant. We also give an algorithm to find a minimal braid representative for a given knot or link in .     

Representations of small braid groups in Temperley-Lieb algebra

In this paper we consider the question of faithfulness of the Jones' representation of braid group Bn into the Temperley-Lieb algebra TLn. The obvious motivation to study this problem is that any non-trivial element in the kernel of this representation (for any n) would almost certainly yield a non-trivial knot with trivial Jones polynomial (see [S. Bigelow, Does the Jones polynomial detect the unknot? J. Knot Theory Ramifications 11 (4) (2002) 493-505], we will explain it in more detail in Section 1). As one of the two main results we prove Theorem 1 in which we present a method to obtain non-trivial elements in the kernel of the representation of B₆ into TL9,2—to the authors' knowledge the first such examples in the second gradation of the Temperley-Lieb algebra. Theorem 2 which is a refinement of Theorem 1 may be used to produce smaller examples of the same kind. We also show briefly how some braids that are used in Section 4 to construct specific examples were generated with a computer program.     

The polynomial invariants of twisted links

A twisted link is a generalization of a virtual link, which is related to a link diagram on a closed, possibly non-orientable surface. In this paper we generalize the Miyazawa polynomial invariant of a virtual link to an invariant of a twisted link in two formulae one of which is introduced by A. Ishii and the other by the author.     

The braid index is not additive for the connected sum of 2-knots

Any -dimensional knot can be presented in a braid form, and its braid index, , is defined. For the connected sum of -knots and , it is easily seen that holds. Birman and Menasco proved that the braid index (minus one) is additive for the connected sum of -dimensional knots; the equality holds for -knots. We prove that the equality does not hold for -knots unless or is a trivial -knot. We also prove that the -knot obtained from a granny knot by Artin's spinning is of braid index , and there are infinitely many -knots of braid index .

     

Partial duality and Bollobás and Riordan’s ribbon graph polynomial

Recently S. Chmutov introduced a generalization of the dual of a ribbon graph (or equivalently an embedded graph) and proved a relation between Bollobás and Riordan’s ribbon graph polynomial of a ribbon graph and of its generalized duals. Here I show that the duality relation satisfied by the ribbon graph polynomial can be understood in terms of knot theory and I give a simple proof of the relation which used the homfly polynomial of a knot.     

A faithfulness criterion for the Gassner representation of the pure braid group

This work is directed towards the open question of the faithfulness of the reduced Gassner representation of the pure braid group, . Long and Paton proved that if a Burau matrix has ones on the diagonal and zeros below the diagonal then is the identity matrix. In this paper, a generalization of Long and Paton's result will be proved. Our main theorem is that if the trace of the image of an element of under the reduced Gassner representation is , then this element lies in the kernel of this representation. Then, as a corollary, we prove that an analogue of the main theorem holds true for the Burau representation of the braid group.

     

Strong periodicity of links and the coefficients of the Conway polynomial

Przytycki and Sokolov proved that a three-manifold admits a semi-free action of the finite cyclic group of order with a circle as the set of fixed points if and only if is obtained from the three-sphere by surgery along a strongly -periodic link . Moreover, if the quotient three-manifold is an integral homology sphere, then we may assume that is orbitally separated. This paper studies the behavior of the coefficients of the Conway polynomial of such a link. Namely, we prove that if is a strongly -periodic orbitally separated link and is an odd prime, then the coefficient is congruent to zero modulo for all such that .

     

Skein related links in 3-manifolds

This paper addresses two problems in the skein theory of homotopy spheres first posed by P. Traczyk. Solutions to both problems are obtained for a large class of manifolds and, since one of the basic techniques used requires the first homology group of the ambient manifold to be torsion free, the extent to which this hypothesis is actually necessary is further explored.     

The Hosoya polynomial decomposition for catacondensed benzenoid graphs

For a graph G with the vertex set V(G), we denote by d(u,v) the distance between vertices u and v in G, by d(u) the degree of vertex u. The Hosoya polynomial of G is H(G)=∑_{u,v}⊆V(G)x^d(u,v). The partial Hosoya polynomials of G are for positive integer numbers m and n. It is shown that H(G₁)−H(G₂)=x²(x+1)²(H₃₃(G₁)−H₃₃(G₂)),H₂₂(G₁)−H₂₂(G₂)=(x²+x−1)²(H₃₃(G₁)−H₃₃(G₂)) and H₂₃(G₁)−H₂₃(G₂)=2(x²+x−1)(H₃₃(G₁)−H₃₃(G₂)) for arbitrary catacondensed benzenoid graphs G₁ and G₂ with equal number of hexagons. As an application, we give an affine relationship between H(G) with two other distance-based polynomials constructed by Gutman [I. Gutman, Some relations between distance-based polynomials of trees, Bulletin de l’Académie Serbe des Sciences et des Arts (Cl. Math. Natur.) 131 (2005) 1-7].     

On the cycling operation in braid groups

The cycling operation is a special kind of conjugation that can be applied to elements in Artin’s braid groups, in order to reduce their length. It is a key ingredient of the usual solutions to the conjugacy problem in braid groups. In their seminal paper on braid-cryptography, Ko, Lee et al. proposed the cycling problem as a hard problem in braid groups that could be interesting for cryptography. In this paper we give a polynomial solution to that problem, mainly by showing that cycling is surjective, and using a result by Maffre which shows that pre-images under cycling can be computed fast. This result also holds in every Artin-Tits group of spherical type, endowed with the Artin Garside structure.On the other hand, the conjugacy search problem in braid groups is usually solved by computing some finite sets called (left) ultra summit sets (left-USSs), using left normal forms of braids. But one can equally use right normal forms and compute right-USSs. Hard instances of the conjugacy search problem correspond to elements having big (left and right) USSs. One may think that even if some element has a big left-USS, it could possibly have a small right-USS. We show that this is not the case in the important particular case of rigid braids. More precisely, we show that the left-USS and the right-USS of a given rigid braid determine isomorphic graphs, with the arrows reversed, the isomorphism being defined using iterated cycling. We conjecture that the same is true for every element, not necessarily rigid, in braid groups and Artin-Tits groups of spherical type.     

Existence of closed solutions for a polynomial first order differential equation

We find new criteria for the existence of closed solutions in a first order polynomial differential equation which contains the Abel equation as a particular case. Such results are applied to the problem of the existence of limit cycles in planar polynomial vector fields.     

GMRES and the minimal polynomial

We present a qualitative model for the convergence behaviour of the Generalised Minimal Residual (GMRES) method for solving nonsingular systems of linear equationsAx =b in finite and infinite dimensional spaces. One application of our methods is the solution of discretised infinite dimensional problems, such as integral equations, where the constants in the asymptotic bounds are independent of the mesh size.Our model provides simple, general bounds that explain the convergence of GMRES as follows: If the eigenvalues ofA consist of a single cluster plus outliers then the convergence factor is bounded by the cluster radius, while the asymptotic error constant reflects the non-normality ofA and the distance of the outliers from the cluster. If the eigenvalues ofA consist of several close clusters, then GMRES treats the clusters as a single big cluster, and the convergence factor is the radius of this big cluster. We exhibit matrices for which these bounds are tight.Our bounds also lead to a simpler proof of existing r-superlinear convergence results in Hilbert space.This research was partially supported by National Science Foundation grants DMS-9122745, DMS-9423705, CCR-9102853, CCR-9400921, DMS-9321938, DMS-9020915, and DMS-9403224.     

Relations among the lowest degree of the Jones polynomial and geometric invariants for a closed positive braid

By means of a result due to Fiedler, we obtain a relation between the lowest degree of the Jones polynomial and the unknotting number for any link which has a closed positive braid diagram. Furthermore, we obtain relations between the lowest degree and the slice euler characteristic or the four-dimensional clasp number.     

Geometric indices and the Alexander polynomial of a knot

It is well-known that any Laurent polynomial satisfying and is the Alexander polynomial of a knot in . We show that can be realized by a knot which has the following properties simultaneously: (i) tunnel number 1; (ii) bridge index 3; and (iii) unknotting number 1.

     

On the matching polynomial of subdivision graphs

Let G be a simple graph and let S(G) be the subdivision graph of G, which is obtained from G by replacing each edge of G by a path of length two. In this paper, by the Principle of Inclusion and Exclusion we express the matching polynomial and Hosoya index of S(G) in terms of the matchings of G. Particularly, if G is a regular graph or a semi-regular bipartite graph, then the closed formulae of the matching polynomial and Hosoya index of S(G) are obtained. As an application, we prove a combinatorial identity.     

The degree of coconvex polynomial approximation

Let change its convexity finitely many times in the interval, say times, at . We estimate the degree of approximation of by polynomials of degree , which change convexity exactly at the points . We show that provided is sufficiently large, depending on the location of the points , the rate of approximation is estimated by the third Ditzian-Totik modulus of smoothness of multiplied by a constant , which depends only on .