On homotopy groups of quandle spaces and the quandle homotopy invariant of links

For a quandle X, the quandle space BX is defined, modifying the rack space of Fenn, Rourke and Sanderson (1995) [13], and the quandle homotopy invariant of links is defined in Z[π₂(BX)], modifying the rack homotopy invariant of Fenn, Rourke and Sanderson (1995) [13]. It is known that the cocycle invariants introduced in Carter et al. (2005) [3], Carter et al. (2003) [5], Carter et al. (2001) [6] can be derived from the quandle homotopy invariant.In this paper, we show that, for a finite quandle X, π₂(BX) is finitely generated, and that, for a connected finite quandle X, π₂(BX) is finite. It follows that the space spanned by cocycle invariants for a finite quandle is finitely generated. Further, we calculate π₂(BX) for some concrete quandles. From the calculation, all cocycle invariants for those quandles are concretely presented. Moreover, we show formulas of the quandle homotopy invariant for connected sum of knots and for the mirror image of links.     

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.     

On rack cohomology

We prove that the lower bounds for Betti numbers of the rack, quandle and degeneracy cohomology given in Carter et al. (J. Pure Appl. Algebra, 157 (2001) 135) are in fact equalities. We compute as well the Betti numbers of the twisted cohomology introduced in Carter et al. (Twisted quandle cohomology theory and cocycle knot invariants, math. GT/0108051). We also give a group-theoretical interpretation of the second cohomology group for racks.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Quandle homology and complex volume

We introduce a new homology theory of quandles, called simplicial quandle homology, which is quite different from quandle homology developed by Carter et al. We construct a homomorphism from a quandle homology group to a simplicial quandle homology group. As an application, we obtain a method for computing the complex volume of a hyperbolic link only from its diagram.     

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     

Triple point cancelling numbers of surface links and quandle cocycle invariants

The unknotting or triple point cancelling number of a surface link F is the least number of 1-handles for F such that the 2-knot obtained from F by surgery along them is unknotted or pseudo-ribbon, respectively. These numbers have been often studied by knot groups and Alexander invariants. On the other hand, quandle colorings and quandle cocycle invariants of surface links were introduced and applied to other aspects, including non-invertibility and triple point numbers. In this paper, we give lower bounds of the unknotting or triple point cancelling numbers of surface links by using quandle colorings and quandle cocycle invariants.     

Inequivalent surface-knots with the same knot quandle

We have a knot quandle and a fundamental class as invariants for a surface-knot. These invariants can be defined for a classical knot in a similar way, and it is known that the pair of them is a complete invariant for classical knots. In surface-knot theory the situation is different: There exist arbitrarily many inequivalent surface-knots of genus g with the same knot quandle, and there exist two inequivalent surface-knots of genus g with the same knot quandle and with the same fundamental class.     

Quandle and hyperbolic volume

We show that hyperbolic volume can be viewed as a quandle cocycle. It gives us a criterion for determining invertibility and positive/negative amphicheirality of hyperbolic knots.     

A classifying invariant of knots,the knot quandle

The two operations of conjugation in a group, $\text{x?y=y}{}^{-1}\text{xy}$ and $\text{x?}{}^{-1}\text{y=yxy}{}^{-1}$ satisfy certain identities. A set with two operations satisfying these identities is called a quandle. The Wirtinger presentation of the knot group involves only relations of the form y^-1xy=z and so may be construed as presenting a quandle rather than a group. This quandle, called the knot quandle, is not only an invariant of the knot, but in fact a classifying invariant of the knot.     

QUANDLE VARIETIES,GENERALIZED SYMMETRIC SPACES,AND <Emphasis Type="Italic">φ</Emphasis>-SPACES

We define a quandle variety as an irreducible algebraic variety Q endowed with an algebraically defined quandle operation ?. It can also be seen as an analogue of a generalized affine symmetric space or a regular s-manifold in algebraic geometry.Assume that Q is normal as an algebraic variety and that the action of its inner automorphism group Inn(Q) has a dense orbit. Then we show that there is an algebraic group G acting on Q with the same orbits as Inn(Q) such that each G-orbit is isomorphic to the quandle (G/H, ?φ) associated to the group G, an automorphism φ of G and a subgroup H of Gφ.     

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.     

Canonical Forms for Operation Tables of Finite Connected Quandles

We introduce a notion of natural orderings of elements of connected finite quandles. Let Q be such a quandle of order n. Any automophism on Q is a natural ordering when the elements are already ordered naturally. Suppose that the permutation *q is a cycle of length n ? 1. Then, the operation tables for such orderings coincide, which leads to the classification of automorphisms on Q. Moreover, every row and column of the operation table contains all the elements of such a quandle, which is due to K. Oshiro. We also consider the general case of finite connected quandles.     

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.