Department of Mathematics, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052 ; Department of Mathematics, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052
Abstract:
We describe, for a few small examples, the Kauffman bracket skein algebra of a surface crossed with an interval. If the surface is a punctured torus the result is a quantization of the symmetric algebra in three variables (and an algebra closely related to a cyclic quantization of )). For a torus without boundary we obtain a quantization of ``the symmetric homologies" of a torus (equivalently, the coordinate ring of the -character variety of ). Presentations are also given for the four-punctured sphere and twice-punctured torus. We conclude with an investigation of central elements and zero divisors.