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This paper concerns pseudo-classical knots in the non-orientable manifold $\hat{\Sigma} =\Sigma \times [0,1]$, where $\Sigma$ is a non-orientable surface and a knot $K \subset \hat{\Sigma}$ is called pseudo-classical if $K$ is orientation-preserving path in $\hat{\Sigma}$. For this kind of knot we introduce an invariant $\Delta$ that is an analogue of Turaev comultiplication for knots in a thickened orientable surface. As its classical prototype, $\Delta$ takes value in a polynomial algebra generated by homotopy classes of non-contractible loops on $\Sigma$, however, as a ground ring we use some subring of $\mathbb{C}$ instead of $\mathbb{Z}$. Then we define a few homotopy, homology and polynomial invariants, which are consequences of $\Delta$, including an analogue of the affine index polynomial., Comment: 20 pages, 2 figures

In "Homfly polynomial via an invariant of colored plane graphs", Murakami, Ohtsuki, and Yamada provide a state-sum description of the level $n$ Jones polynomial of an oriented link in terms of a suitable braided monoidal category whose morphisms are $\mathbb{Q}[q,q^{-1}]$-linear combinations of oriented trivalent planar graphs, and give a corresponding description for the HOMFLY-PT polynomial. We extend this construction and express the Khovanov-Rozansky homology of an oriented link in terms of a combinatorially defined category whose morphisms are equivalence classes of formal complexes of (formal direct sums of shifted) oriented trivalent plane graphs. By working combinatorially, one avoids many of the computational difficulties involved in the matrix factorization computations of the original Khovanov-Rozansky formulation: one systematically uses combinatorial relations satisfied by these matrix factorizations to simplify the computation at a level that is easily handled. By using this technique, we are able to provide a computation of the level $n$ Khovanov-Rozansky invariant of the 2-strand braid link with $k$ crossings, for arbitrary $n$ and $k$, confirming and extending previous results and conjectural predictions by Anokhina-Morozov, Beliakova-Putyra-Wehrli, Carqueville-Murfet, Dolotin-Morozov, Gukov-Iqbal-Kozcaz-Vafa, Nizami-Munir-Sohail-Usman, and Rasmussen., Comment: 28 pages; results in the article have originally appeared in the second author's PhD Thesis, "A generators and relations derivation of Khovanov homology of 2 strand braid links", Vienna University, 2018. The Thesis is available as arXiv preprint as arXiv:2404.14191

In the present paper, we construct $(2n-4)\times (2n-4)$ matrices corresponding to the motion of points on standard round sphere from the point of view of Delaunay triangulations. We define homomorphism from spherical pure braids on $n$ strands to the product of these matrices for $n>5$., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, comments are welcome!

We prove a prime decomposition theorem for string links in a thickened surface. Namely, we prove that any non-braid string link $\ell \subset \Sigma \times I$, where $\Sigma$ is a compact orientable (not necessarily closed) surface other than $S^2$, can be written in the form $\ell =\ell_1 \# \ldots \# \ell_m$, where $\ell_j,j=1,\ldots,m,$ is prime string link defined up to braid equivalence, and the decomposition is unique up to possibly permuting the order of factors in its right-hand side., Comment: Minor revisions in accordance with reviewer suggestions

We introduce and investigate oriented dichromatic singular links. We also introduce oriented disingquandles and use them to define counting invariants for oriented dichromatic singular links. We provide some examples to show that these invariants distinguish some oriented dichromatic singular links., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2301.03792

We describe the simplest non-trivial modular category $\mathfrak{E}$ with two simple objects. Then we extract from this category the invariant for non-oriented links in 3-sphere and two invariants for 3-manifolds: the complex-valued Turaev - Reshetikhin type invariant $tr_{\varepsilon}$ and the real-valued Turaev - Viro type invariant $tv_{\varepsilon}$. These two invariants for 3-manifolds are related by the equality $|tr_{\varepsilon}|^2\cdot (\varepsilon + 2) = tv_{\varepsilon}$, where $\varepsilon$ is a root of the equation $\varepsilon^2 = \varepsilon + 1$. Finally, we show that $tv_{\varepsilon}$ coincides with the well-known $\varepsilon$ invariant for 3-manifolds., Comment: 28 pages, 38 figures, 22 bibliography items. In the current version, the introduction and bibliography have been expanded

We introduce and investigate dichromatic singular links. We also construct G-Family of singquandles and use them to define counting invariants for unoriented dichromatic singular links. We provide some examples to show that these invariants distinguish some dichromatic singular links.

It has been known that, the coefficients of the series expansion of the Jones polynomial evaluated at $e^x$ are rational valued Vassiliev invariants . In this article, we calculate minimal multiplying factor, {\lambda}, needed for these rational valued invariants to become integer valued Vassiliev invariants. By doing that we obtain a set of integer-valued Vassiliev invariants., Comment: 9 pages

We construct an invariant of virtual knots which is a sliceness obstruction and sensitive to the $\Delta$-move. This invariants works if $\Z_{2}\oplus \Z_{2}$-index of chords is present., Comment: 8 pages, 1 Figure

We compute the smooth 4-genera of the prime knots with 12 crossings whose values, as reported on the KnotInfo website, were unknown. This completes the calculation of the smooth 4-genus for all prime knots with 12 or fewer crossings.

We define a family of Khovanov-Lipshitz-Sarkar stable homotopy types for the homotopical Khovanov homology of links in thickened surfaces indexed by moduli space systems. This family includes the Khovanov-Lipshitz-Sarkar stable homotopy type for the homotopical Khovanov homology of links in higher genus surfaces (see the content of the paper for the definition). The question whether different choices of moduli spaces lead to the same stable homotopy type is open.

Extending a result of the first author and Katsura, we prove that for every UHF algebra $A$ of infinite type, in every uncountable cardinality $\kappa$ there are $2^\kappa$ nonisomorphic approximately matricial C*-algebras with the same $K_0$ group as $A$. These algebras are group \cstar-algebras `twisted' by prescribed canonical commutation relations (CCR), and they can also be considered as nonseparable generalizations of noncommutative tori., Comment: Minor changes (other than the new documentstyle). To appear in International Journal of Mathematics

The groups $G_n^k$ were defined by V. O. Manturov in order to describe dynamical systems in configuration systems. In the paper we consider two applications of this theory: we define a biquandle structure on the groups $G_n^k$, and construct a homomorphism from the surface singular braid monoid to the group $G_n^2$.

There are infinitely many pretzel links with the same Alexander polynomial (actually with trivial Alexander polynomial). By contrast, in this note we revisit the Jones polynomial of pretzel links and prove that, given a natural number S, there is only a finite number of pretzel links whose Jones polynomials have span S. More concretely, we provide an algorithm useful for deciding whether or not a given knot is pretzel. As an application we identify all the pretzel knots up to nine crossings, proving in particular that $8_{12}$ is the first non-pretzel knot., Comment: 31 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, 1 appendix

We consider an analogue of well-known Casson knot invariant for knotoids. We start with a direct analogue of the classical construction which gives two different integer-valued knotoid invariants and then focus on its homology extension. Value of the extension is a formal sum of subgroups of the first homology group $H_1(\Sigma)$ where $\Sigma$ is an oriented surface with (maybe) non-empty boundary in which knotoid diagrams lie. To make the extension informative for spherical knotoids it is sufficient to transform an initial knotoid diagram in $S^2$ into a knotoid diagram in the annulus by removing small disks around its endpoints. As an application of the invariants we prove two theorems: a sharp lower bound of the crossing number of a knotoid (the estimate differs from its prototype for classical knots proved by M.Polyak and O.Viro in 2001) and a sufficient condition for a knotoid in $S^2$ to be a proper knotoid (or pure knotoid with respect to Turaev's terminology). Finally we give a table containing values of our invariants computed for all spherical prime proper knotoids having diagrams with at most $5$ crossings., Comment: 18 pages, many figures, 1 table

Knotoids are open ended knot diagrams regarded up to Reidemeister moves and isotopies. The notion is introduced by V.~Turaev in 2012. Two most important numeric characteristics of a knotoid are the crossing number and the height. The latter is the least number of intersections between a diagram and an arc connecting its endpoints, where the minimum is taken over all representative diagrams and all such an arcs disjoint from crossings. In the paper we answer the question: are there any relations between the crossing number and the height of a knotoid. We prove that the crossing number of a knotoid is greater than or equal to twice the height of the knotoid. Combining the inequality with known lower bounds of the height we obtain a lower bounds of the crossing number of a knotoid via the extended bracket polynomial, the affine index polynomial and the arrow polynomial of the knotoid. As an application of our result we prove an upper bound for the length of a bridge in a minimal diagram of a classical knot: the number of crossings in a minimal diagram of a knot is greater than or equal to three times the length of a longest bridge in the diagram.

We study a local twist move on welded knots that is an analog of the virtualization move on virtual knots. Since this move is an unknotting operation we define an invariant, unknotting twist number, for welded knots. We relate the unknotting twist number with warping degree and welded unknotting number, and establish a lower bound on the twist number using Alexander quandle coloring. We also study the Gordian distance between welded knots by twist move and define the corresponding Gordian complex., Comment: 18 pages, 25 figures

We discuss links in thickened surfaces. We define the Khovanov-Lipshitz-Sarkar stable homotopy type and the Steenrod square for the homotopical Khovanov homology of links in thickened surfaces with genus$>1$. A surface means a closed oriented surface unless otherwise stated. Of course, a surface may or may not be the sphere. A thickened surface means a product manifold of a surface and the interval. A link in a thickened surface (respectively, a 3-manifold) means a submanifold of a thickened surface (respectively, a 3-manifold) which is diffeomorphic to a disjoint collection of circles. Our Khovanov-Lipshitz-Sarkar stable homotopy type and our Steenrod square of links in thickened surfaces with genus$>1$ are stronger than the homotopical Khovanov homology of links in thickened surfaces with genus$>1$. It is the first meaningful Khovanov-Lipshitz-Sarkar stable homotopy type of links in 3-manifolds other than the 3-sphere. We point out that our theory has a different feature in the torus case.

Study of certain isotopy classes of a finite collection of immersed circles without triple or higher intersections on closed oriented surfaces can be thought of as a planar analogue of virtual knot theory where the genus zero case corresponds to classical knot theory. Alexander and Markov theorems for the genus zero case are known where the role of groups is played by twin groups, a class of right angled Coxeter groups with only far commutativity relations. The purpose of this paper is to prove Alexander and Markov theorems for higher genus case where the role of groups is played by a new class of groups called virtual twin groups which extends twin groups in a natural way., Comment: 20 pages, 20 figures, accepted in New York Journal of Mathematics

It is well-known that the second coefficient of the Alexander polynomial of any lens space knot in $S^3$ is $-1$. We show that the non-zero third coefficient condition of the Alexander polynomial of a lens space knot $K$ in $S^3$ confines the surgery to the one realized by the $(2,2g+1)$-torus knot, where $g$ is the genus of $K$. In particular, such a lens surgery polynomial coincides with $\Delta_{T(2,2g+1)}(t)$., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. Comments are welcome

We study systems of $2$-tangle equations which play an important role in the analysis of enzyme actions on DNA strands. We show that every system of framed tangle equations has at most one framed rational solution. Furthermore, we show that the Jones Unknot conjecture implies that if a system of tangle equations has a rational solution then that solution is unique among all $2$-tangles. This result potentially opens a door to a purely topological disproof of the Jones Unknot conjecture. We introduce the notion of the Kauffman bracket ratio $\{T\}_q\in \mathbb Q(q)$ of any $2$-tangle $T$ and we conjecture that for $q=1$ it is the slope of meridionally incompressible surfaces in $D^3-T$. We prove that conjecture for algebraic $T$. We also prove that for rational $T$, the brackets $\{T\}_q$ coincide with the $q$-rationals of Morier-Genoud-Ovsienko. Additionally, we relate systems of tangle equations to the Cosmetic Surgery Conjecture and the Nugatory Crossing Conjecture., Comment: 22 pages

We show that for each $k\in \mathbb{N}$, a link $L\subset S^3$ bounds a degree $k$ Whitney tower in the 4-ball if and only if it is \emph{$C_k$-concordant} to the unlink. This means that $L$ is obtained from the unlink by a finite sequence of concordances and degree $k$ clasper surgeries. In our construction the trees associated to the Whitney towers coincide with the trees associated to the claspers. As a corollary to our previous obstruction theory for Whitney towers in the 4-ball, it follows that the $C_k$-concordance filtration of links is classified in terms of Milnor invariants, higher-order Sato-Levine and Arf invariants. Using a new notion of $k$-repeating twisted Whitney towers, we also classify a natural generalization of the notion of link homotopy, called twisted \emph{self $C_k$-concordance}, in terms of $k$-repeating Milnor invariants and $k$-repeating Arf invariants., Comment: 30 pages, 9 figures

K. Cho and S. Nelson introduced the notion of a quandle coloring quiver, which is a quiver-valued link invariant, and a quandle cocycle quiver which is an enhancement of the quandle coloring quiver by assigning to each vertex a weight computed using a quandle 2-cocycle. In this paper, we study quandle coloring quivers using dihedral quandles and introduce the notions of a shadow quandle coloring quiver and a shadow quandle cocycle quiver, which are shadow versions of the quandle coloring quiver and the quandle cocycle quiver. We show that, when we use a dihedral quandle of prime order, the quandle coloring quivers are equivalent to the quandle coloring numbers and when we use a dihedral quandle of prime order and Mochizuki's 3-cocycle, the shadow quandle cocycle quivers are equivalent to the shadow quandle cocycle invariants., Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures

Given a knot in $S^3$, one can associate to it a surface diffeomorphism in two different ways. First, an arbitrary knot in $S^{3}$ can be represented by braids, which can be thought of as diffeomorphisms of punctured disks. Second, if the knot is fibered -- that is, if its complement fibers over $S^1$ -- one can consider the monodromy of the fibration. One can ask to what extent properties of these surface diffeomorphisms dictate topological properties of the corresponding knot. In this article we collect observations, conjectures, and questions addressing this, from both the braid perspective and the fibered knot perspective. We particularly focus on exploring whether properties of the surface diffeomorphisms relate to four-dimensional topological properties of knots such as the slice genus., Comment: 33 pages, minor changes. Accepted for publication in the Proceedings Volume of the 2019 Research Collaboration Conference for Women in Symplectic and Contact Geometry and Topology

We utilize relations between Khovanov and chromatic graph homology to determine extreme Khovanov groups and corresponding coefficients of the Jones polynomial. The extent to which chromatic homology and chromatic polynomial can be used to compute integral Khovanov homology of a link depends on the maximal girth of its all-positive graphs. In this paper we also define the girth of a link, discuss relations to other knot invariants, and the possible values for girth. Analyzing girth leads to a description of possible all-A state graphs of any given link; e.g., if a link has a diagram such that the girth of the corresponding all-A graph is equal to $\ell>2$, than the girth of the link is equal to $\ell.$

In this paper we study the parabolic representations of 2-bridge links by finiding arc coloring vectors on the Conway diagram. The method we use is to convert the system of conjugation quandle equations to that of symplectic quandle equations. In this approach, we have an integer coefficient monic polynomial $P_K(u)$ for each 2-bridge link $K$, and each zero of this polynomial gives a set of arc coloring vectors on the diagram of $K$ satisfying the system of symplectic quandle equations, which gives an explicit formula for a parabolic representation of $K$. We then explain how these arc coloring vectors give us the closed form formulas of the complex volume and the cusp shape of the representation. As other applications of this method, we show some interesting arithmetic properties of the Riley polynomial and of the trace field, and also describe a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of epimorphisms between 2-bridge link groups in terms of divisibility of the corresponding Riley polynomials.

In this paper we define a set of numerical criteria for a handlebody link to be irreducible. It provides an effective, easy-to-implement method to determine the irreducibility of handlebody links; particularly, it recognizes the irreducibility of all handlebody knots in the Ishii-Kishimoto-Moriuchi-Suzuki knot table and most handlebody links in the Bellettini-Paolini-Paolini-Wang link table., Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures

We define a second Steenrod square for virtual links, which is stronger than Khovanov homology for virtual links, toward constructing Khovanov-Lipshitz-Sarkar stable homotopy type for virtual links. This induces the first meaningful nontrivial example of the second Steenrod square operator on the Khovanov homology for links in a 3-manifold other than the 3-sphere., Comment: 83 pages, many figures

We show the Morse-Novikov number of knots in $S^3$ is additive under connected sum and unchanged by cabling., Comment: The paper has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Topology

We define the Wirtinger width of a knot. Then we prove the Wirtinger width of a knot equals its Gabai width. The algorithmic nature of the Wirtinger width leads to an efficient technique for establishing upper bounds on Gabai width. As an application, we use this technique to calculate the Gabai width of approximately 50000 tabulated knots., Comment: 17 pages, 9 Figures

The spaces of triangulations of a given manifold have been widely studied. The celebrated theorem of Pachner~\cite{Pachner} says that any two triangulations of a given manifold can be connected by a sequence of bistellar moves, or Pachner moves, see also~\cite{GKZ,Nabutovsky}. In the present paper we consider groups which naturally appear when considering the set of triangulations with fixed number of simplices of maximal dimension. There are three ways of introducing this groups: the geometrical one, which depends on the metric, the topological one, and the combinatorial one. The second one can be thought of as a ``braid group'' of the manifold and, by definition, is an invariant of the topological type of manifold; in a similar way, one can construct the smooth version. We construct a series of groups $\Gamma_{n}^{k}$ corresponding to Pachner moves of $(k-2)$-dimensional manifolds and construct a canonical map from the braid group of any $k$-dimensional manifold to $\Gamma_{n}^{k}$ thus getting topological/smooth invariants of these manifolds., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1905.08049 authors' note: arXiv:1905.08049 is a survey paper which includes the results of the present paper

Given a biquandle $(X, S)$, a function $\tau$ with certain compatibility and a pair of {\em non commutative cocyles} $f,h:X \times X\to G$ with values in a non necessarily commutative group $G$, we give an invariant for singular knots / links. Given $(X,S,\tau)$, we also define a universal group $U_{nc}^{fh}(X)$ and universal functions governing all 2-cocycles in $X$, and exhibit examples of computations. When the target group is abelian, a notion of {\em abelian cocycle pair} is given and the "state sum" is defined for singular knots/links. Computations generalizing linking number for singular knots are given. As for virtual knots, a "self-linking number" may be defined for singular knots, Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures

Region crossing change is a local operation on link diagrams. The behavior of region crossing change on $S^2$ is well understood. In this paper, we study the behavior of (modified) region crossing change on higher genus surfaces., Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures

We prove a Kauffman-Murasugi-Thistlethwaite theorem for alternating links in thickened surfaces. It states that any reduced alternating diagram of a link in a thickened surface has minimal crossing number, and any two reduced alternating diagrams of the same link have the same writhe. This result is proved more generally for link diagrams that are adequate, and the proof involves a two-variable generalization of the Jones polynomial for surface links defined by Krushkal. The main result is used to establish the first and second Tait conjectures for links in thickened surfaces and for virtual links., Comment: 32 pages, 20 figures, and 1 table

Gordian complex of knots was defined by Hirasawa and Uchida as the simplicial complex whose vertices are knot isotopy classes in $\mathbb{S}^3$. Later Horiuchi and Ohyama defined Gordian complex of virtual knots using $v$-move and forbidden moves. In this paper we discuss Gordian complex of knots by region crossing change and Gordian complex of virtual knots by arc shift move. Arc shift move is a local move in the virtual knot diagram which results in reversing orientation locally between two consecutive crossings. We show the existence of an arbitrarily high dimensional simplex in both the Gordian complexes, i.e., by region crossing change and by the arc shift move. For any given knot (respectively, virtual knot) diagram we construct an infinite family of knots (respectively, virtual knots) such that any two distinct members of the family have distance one by region crossing change (respectively, arc shift move). We show that that the constructed virtual knots have the same affine index polynomial., Comment: 23 pages, 35 figures, 1 table

Using exhaustive techniques and results from Lackenby and many others, we compute the tunnel number of all 1655 alternating 11 and 12 crossing knots and of 881 non-alternating 11 and 12 crossing knots. We also find all 5525 Montesinos knots with 14 crossings or fewer., Comment: Final version for publication in Involve - A Journal of Mathematics. Paper is 11 pages with 2 page appdendix

We consider arrow diagrams of links in $S^3$ and define $k$-moves on such diagrams, for any $k\in\mathbb N$. We study the equivalence classes of links in $S^3$ up to $k$-moves. For $k=2$, we show that any two knots are equivalent, whereas it is not true for links. We show that the Jones polynomial at a $k$-th primitive root of unity is unchanged by a $k$-move, when $k$ is odd. It is multiplied by $-1$, when $k$ is even. It follows that, for any $k\ge 5$, there are infinitely many classes of knots modulo $k$-moves. We use these results to study the Hopf crossing number. In particular, we show that it is unbounded for some families of knots. We also interpret $k$-moves as some identifications between links in different lens spaces $L_{p,1}$., Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures

We consider diagrams of links in $S^2$ obtained by projection from $S^3$ with the Hopf map and the minimal crossing number for such diagrams. Knots admitting diagrams with at most one crossing are classified. Some properties of these knots are exhibited. In particular, we establish which of these knots are algebraic and, for such knots, give an answer to a problem posed by Fiedler., Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures, accepted to be published in the Osaka Journal of Mathematics

The $\nu^+$-equivalence is an equivalence relation on the knot concordance group. This relation can be seen as a certain stable equivalence on knot Floer complexes $CFK^{\infty}$, and many concordance invariants derived from Heegaard Floer theory are invariant under the equivalence. In this paper, we show that any genus one knot is $\nu^+$-equivalent to one of the trefoil, its mirror and the unknot., Comment: 46 pages, 8 figures;(v2)typos corrected

In links with two components there are three different types of crossings: self-crossings in the first component, self crossings in the second component, and crossings between components. In this paper we examine the minimum number of crossing changes needed to unlink without changing the crossings between components. We restrict our attention to unlinking two component links with linking number zero and both components unknotted. We provide data for links with no more than ten crossings and general results about asymmetry of unlinking between components., Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures

If a knot $K$ in $S^3$ admits a pair of truly cosmetic surgeries, we show that the surgery slopes are either $\pm 2$ or $\pm 1/q$ for some value of $q$ that is explicitly determined by the knot Floer homology of $K$. Moreover, in the former case the genus of $K$ must be two, and in the latter case there is bound relating $q$ to the genus and the Heegaard Floer thickness of $K$. As a consequence, we show that the cosmetic crossing conjecture holds for alternating knots (or more generally, Heegaard Floer thin knots) with genus not equal to two. We also show that the conjecture holds for any knot $K$ for which each prime summand of $K$ has at most 16 crossings; our techniques rule out cosmetic surgeries in this setting except for slopes $\pm 1$ and $\pm 2$ on a small number of knots, and these remaining examples can be checked by comparing hyperbolic invariants. These results make use of the surgery formula for Heegaard Floer homology, which has already proved to be a powerful tool for obstructing cosmetic surgeries; we get stronger obstructions than previously known by considering the full graded theory. We make use of a new graphical interpretation of knot Floer homology and the surgery formula in terms of immersed curves, which makes the grading information we need easier to access., Comment: v2: The main theorem (Theorem 2) is enhanced by including an explicit formula for q, which previously appeared later in the paper (Proposition 30 in v1). Other minor changes are implemented following referee feedback, the example in section 5 has been expanded for clarity, and a few figures have been added

Let K be a an alternating prime knot in the 3-sphere. We investigate the category of flypes between reduced alternating diagrams for K. As a consequence, we show that any odd prime order action on K is isotopic through maps of pairs to a single flype. This implies that for any odd prime order action on K there is either a reduced alternating periodic diagram or a reduced alternating free periodic diagram. Finally, we deduce that the quotient of an odd periodic alternating knot is also alternating.

In this paper, we analyze L-space surgeries on two component L-space links. We show that if one surgery coefficient is negative for the L-space surgery, then the corresponding link component is an unknot. If the link admits very negative (i.e. $d_{1}, d_{2}\ll0$) L-space surgeries, it is the Hopf link. We also give a way to characterize the torus link $T(2, 2l)$ by observing an L-space surgery $S^{3}_{d_{1}, d_{2}}(\mathcal{L})$ with $d_{1}d_{2}<0$ on a 2-component L-space link with unknotted components. For some 2-component L-space links, we give explicit descriptions of the L-space surgery sets., Comment: 28 pages

We incorporate quandle cocycle information into the quandle coloring quivers we defined in arXiv:1807.10465 to define weighted directed graph-valued invariants of oriented links we call \textit{quandle cocycle quivers}. This construction turns the quandle cocycle invariant into a small category, yielding a categorification of the quandle cocycleinvariant. From these graphs we define several new link invariants including a 2-variable polynomial which specializes to the usual quandle cocycle invariant. Examples and computations are provided., Comment: 9 pages

We define a limiting $\mathfrak{sl}_N$ Khovanov-Rozansky homology for semi-infinite positive multi-colored braids, and we show that this limiting homology categorifies a highest-weight projector for a large class of such braids. This effectively completes the extension of Cautis' similar result for infinite twist braids, begun in our earlier papers with Islambouli and Abel. We also present several similar results for other families of semi-infinite and bi-infinite multi-colored braids., Comment: 37 pages, 13 figures

Let $\Sigma_0,\Sigma_1$ be closed oriented surfaces. Two oriented knots $K_0 \subset \Sigma_0 \times [0,1]$ and $K_1 \subset \Sigma_1 \times [0,1]$ are said to be (virtually) concordant if there is a compact oriented $3$-manifold $W$ and a smoothly and properly embedded annulus $A$ in $W \times [0,1]$ such that $\partial W=\Sigma_1 \sqcup -\Sigma_0$ and $\partial A=K_1 \sqcup -K_0$. This notion of concordance, due to Turaev, is equivalent to concordance of virtual knots, due to Kauffman. A prime virtual knot, in the sense of Matveev, is one for which no thickened surface representative $K \subset \Sigma \times [0,1]$ admits a nontrivial decomposition along a separating vertical annulus that intersects $K$ in two points. Here we prove that every knot $K \subset \Sigma \times [0,1]$ is concordant to a prime satellite knot and a prime hyperbolic knot. For homologically trivial knots in $\Sigma \times [0,1]$, we prove this can be done so that the Alexander polynomial is preserved. This generalizes the corresponding results for classical knot concordance, due to Bleiler, Kirby-Lickorish, Livingston, Myers, Nakanishi, and Soma. The new challenge for virtual knots lies in proving primeness. Contrary to the classical case, not every hyperbolic knot in $\Sigma \times [0,1]$ is prime and not every composite knot is a satellite. Our results are obtained using a generalization of tangles in $3$-balls we call complementary tangles. Properties of complementary tangles are studied in detail., Comment: 32 pages, 25 figures; v2--typos corrected, some proofs streamlined

We show that a band-connected sum of knots $K_0$ and $K_1$ along a band $b$ is equal to the connected sum $K_0\# K_1$ if and only if $b$ is a trivial band., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

We use the Bar-Natan Zh-correspondence to identify the generalized Alexander polynomial of a virtual knot with the Alexander polynomial of a two component welded link. We show that the Zh-map is functorial under concordance, and also that Satoh's Tube map (from welded links to ribbon knotted tori in $S^4$) is functorial under concordance. In addition, we extend classical results of Chen, Milnor, and Hillman on the lower central series of link groups to links in thickened surfaces. Our main result is that the generalized Alexander polynomial vanishes on any knot in a thickened surface which is concordant to a homologically trivial knot. In particular, this shows that it vanishes on virtually slice knots. We apply it to complete the calculation of the slice genus for virtual knots with four crossings and to determine non-sliceness for a number of 5-crossing and 6-crossing virtual knots., Comment: 32 pages, 24 figures

We define invariants of oriented surface-links by enhancing the biquandle counting invariant using \textit{biquandle modules}, algebraic structures defined in terms of biquandle actions on commutative rings analogous to Alexander biquandles. We show that bead colorings of marked graph diagrams are preserved by Yoshikawa moves and hence define enhancements of the biquandle counting invariant for surface links. We provide examples illustrating the computation of the invariant and demonstrate that these invariants are not determined by the first and second Alexander elementary ideals and characteristic polynomials., Comment: 13 pages; version 2 includes typo corrections. To appear in Proc. of the AMS

In the integral Khovanov homology of links, the presence of odd torsion is rare. Homologically thin links, that is links whose Khovanov homology is supported on two adjacent diagonals, are known to only contain $\mathbb{Z}_2$ torsion. In this paper, we prove a local version of this result. If the Khovanov homology of a link is supported in two adjacent diagonals over a range of homological gradings and the Khovanov homology satisfies some other mild restrictions, then the Khovanov homology of that link has only $\mathbb{Z}_2$ torsion over that range of homological gradings. These conditions are then shown to be met by an infinite family of 3-braids, strictly containing all 3-strand torus links, thus giving a partial answer to Sazdanovic and Przytycki's conjecture that 3-braids have only $\mathbb{Z}_2$ torsion in Khovanov homology. We also give explicit computations of integral Khovanov homology for all links in this family., Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures. Section 4 has been simplified