Search

Determining the structure of the Kauffman bracket skein module of all $3$-manifolds over the ring of Laurent polynomials $\mathbb Z[A^{\pm 1}]$ is a big open problem in skein theory. Very little is known about the skein module of non-prime manifolds over this ring. In this paper, we compute the Kauffman bracket skein module of the $3$-manifold $(S^1 \times S^2) \ \# \ (S^1 \times S^2)$ over the ring $\mathbb Z[A^{\pm 1}]$. We do this by analysing the submodule of handle sliding relations, for which we provide a suitable basis. Along the way we also compute the Kauffman bracket skein module of $(S^1 \times S^2) \ \# \ (S^1 \times D^2)$. Furthermore, we show that the skein module of $(S^1 \times S^2) \ \# \ (S^1 \times S^2)$ does not split into the sum of free and torsion submodules., Comment: 32 pages, 20 figures

For a reduced alternating diagram of a knot with a prime determinant $p,$ the Kauffman-Harary conjecture states that every non-trivial Fox $p$-coloring of the knot assigns different colors to its arcs. In this paper, we prove a generalization of the conjecture stated nineteen years ago by Asaeda, Przytycki, and Sikora: for every pair of distinct arcs in the reduced alternating diagram of a prime link with determinant $\delta,$ there exists a Fox $\delta$-coloring that distinguishes them., Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures

This note provides a counterexample to a conjecture by March\'e about the structure of the Kauffman bracket skein module for closed compact oriented 3-manifolds over the ring of Laurent polynomials., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures