We construct a functor valued invariant of oriented tangles on certain singular blocks of category O. Parabolic subcategories of these blocks categorify tensor products of various fundamental sl(k) representations. Projective functors restricted to these categories give rise to a functorial action of the Lie algebra. On the derived category, Zuckerman functors categorify sl(k)- homomorphisms. Cones of natural transformations between the identity functor and Zuckerman functors are assigned to crossings and this assignment satisfies the appropriate relations. On the Grothendieck group, the functors assigned to the crossings satisfy the sl(k)- specialization of the two variable HOMFLYPT polynomial. For the special case of links, we get a homological invariant.
In this paper we present a categorical version of the first and second fundamental theorems of the invariant theory for the quantized symplectic groups. Our methods depend on the theory of braided strict monoidal categories which are pivotal, more explicitly the diagram category of framed tangles.
We define a ribbon category $\mathsf{Sp}(β)$, depending on a parameter $β$, which encompasses Cautis, Kamnitzer and Morrison's spider category, and describes for $β=m-n$ the monoidal category of representations of $U_q(\mathfrak{gl}_{m|n})$ generated by exterior powers of the vector representation and their duals. We identify this category $\mathsf{Sp}(β)$ with a direct limit of quotients of a dual idempotented quantum group $\dot{\mathsf{U}}_q(\mathfrak{gl}_{r+s})$, proving a mixed version of skew Howe duality in which exterior powers and their duals appear at the same time. We show that the …
In this paper we give a re-normalization of the supertrace on the category of representations of Lie superalgebras of type I, by a kind of modified superdimension. The genuine superdimensions and supertraces are generically zero. However, these modified superdimensions are non-zero and lead to a kind of supertrace which is non-trivial and invariant. As an application we show that this new supertrace gives rise to a non-zero bilinear form on a space of invariant tensors of a Lie superalgebra of type I. The results of this paper are completely classical results in the theory of Lie superalgebras…
A Group category is a spherical category whose simple objects are invertible. The invariant of Turaev-Viro with this particular category is in fact the invariant of Dijkgraaf-Witten whose the group and the 3-cocycle is given by the simple objects and the associativity constraint of the category.
We construct a pivotal category by a finite presentation and show that it is an integral form of the category of invariant tensors of the spin representation of the quantum group U_q(B_3) over the field of rational functions in q.
A tortile (or ribbon) category defines invariants of ribbon (framed) links and tangles. We observe that these invariants, when restricted to links, string links, and more general tangles which we call turbans, do not actually depend on the braiding of the tortile category. Besides duality, the only pertinent data for such tangles are the double braiding and twist. We introduce the general notions of twine, which is meant to play the role of the double braiding (in the absence of a braiding), and the corresponding notion of twist. We show that the category of (ribbon) pure braids is the free ca…
We present a short and unified representation-theoretical treatment of type A link invariants (that is, the HOMFLY-PT polynomials, the Jones polynomial, the Alexander polynomial and, more generally, the gl(m|n) quantum invariants) as link invariants with values in the quantized oriented Brauer category.
We consider colored operads and their actions on categories. As a special example we construct a cobordism category with a colored operad action arising from oriented planar arc diagrams. This is used to construct an invariant of oriented tangle diagrams with values in the homotopy category attached to the cobordism category. Motivated by Bar-Natan's categorification of the Jones polynomial, it categorifies the quantum $sl_n$ quantum invariants and is adapted to the categorification of the $sl_n$ quantum invariants by Khovanov and Rozansky using matrix factorizations. We conjecture to exist th…
We construct a fully faithful functor from the category C_F of finite-dimensional representations of Felder's (dynamical) elliptic quantum group E_{tau,gamma}(gl(n)) to a cretain category D_B of (infinite-dimensional) representations of Belavin's quantum elliptic algebra B by difference operators, and a fully faithful functor from the category C_B of finite-dimensional representations of B to D_B. As a corollary, we show that the abelian subcategories of C_B and C_F generated by tensor products of vector representations are equivalent.
We prove that the foam and matrix factorization universal rational sl3 link homologies are naturally isomorphic as projective functors from the category of link and link cobordisms to the category of bigraded vector spaces.
We define the notion of a Kirby element of a ribbon category C (not necessarily semisimple). Kirby elements lead to 3-manifolds invariants. We characterize (in terms of the structure maps of some categorical Hopf algebra) a set of Kirby elements of C which is sufficiently large to recover the known quantum invariants computed from C. The cases of a semisimple ribbon category and of a category of representations are explored in details.
For any finite group G with a finite G-set X and a modular tensor category C we construct a part of the algebraic structure of an associated G-equivariant monoidal category: For any group element g in G we exhibit the module category structure of the g-component over the trivial component. This uses the formalism of permutation equivariant modular functors that was worked out in arXiv:1004.1825. As an application we show that the corresponding modular invariant partition function is given by permutation by g.
We define notions of pivotal and ribbon objects in a monoidal category. These constructions give pivotal or ribbon monoidal categories from a monoidal category which is not necessarily with duals. We apply this construction to the braided monoidal category of Yetter--Drinfeld modules over a Hopf algebra. This gives rise to the notion of ribbon Yetter--Drinfeld modules over a Hopf algebra, which form ribbon categories. This gives an invariant of tangles.
The universal Vassiliev-Kontsevich invariant is a functor from the category of tangles to a certain graded category of chord diagrams, compatible with the Vassiliev filtration and whose associated graded is an isomorphism. The Vassiliev filtration has a natural extension to tangles in any thickened surface $M\times I$ but the corresponding category of diagrams lacks some finiteness properties which are essential to the above construction. We suggest to overcome this obstruction by studying families of Vassiliev invariants which, roughly, are associated to finite coverings of $M$. In the case $…
We develop a categorical analogue of Clifford theory for strongly graded rings over graded fusion categories. We describe module categories over a fusion category graded by a group $G$ as induced from module categories over fusion subcategories associated with the subgroups of $G$. We define invariant $\C_e$-module categories and extensions of $\C_e$-module categories. The construction of module categories over $\C$ is reduced to determine invariant module categories for subgroups of $G$ and the indecomposable extensions of this modules categories. We associate a $G$-crossed product fusion cat…
We address the question whether the condition on a fusion category being solvable or not is determined by its fusion rules. We prove that the answer is affirmative for some families of non-solvable examples arising from representations of semisimple Hopf algebras associated to exact factorizations of the symmetric and alternating groups. In the context of spherical fusion categories, we also consider the invariant provided by the $S$-matrix of the Drinfeld center and show that this invariant does determine the solvability of a fusion category provided it is group-theoretical.
We develop abstract nonsense for module categories over monoidal categories (this is a straightforward categorification of modules over rings). As applications we show that any semisimple monoidal category with finitely many simple objects is equivalent to the category of representations of a weak Hopf algebra (theorem of T. Hayashi) and classify module categories over the fusion category of $\hat{sl}(2)$ at a positive integer level where we meet once again ADE classification pattern.
This paper is devoted to the study of algebraic structures leading to link homology theories. The originally used structures of Frobenius algebra and/or TQFT are modified in two directions. First, we refine 2-dimensional cobordisms by taking into account their embedding into the three space. Secondly, we extend the underlying cobordism category to a 2-category, where the usual relations hold up to 2-isomorphisms. The corresponding abelian 2-functor is called an extended quantum field theory (EQFT). We show that the Khovanov homology, the nested Khovanov homology, extracted by Stroppel and Webs…
In this paper we introduce two theories of finite type invariants for framed links with fixed linking matrix. We show that these thepries are related to the theory of Vassiliev invariants of framed links. We also study the corresponding spaces of ``chord diagrams''.
We construct the skein category $\mathcal{S}$ of the annulus and show that it is equivalent to the affine Temperley-Lieb category of Graham and Lehrer. It leads to a skein theoretic description of the extended affine Temperley-Lieb algebras. We construct an endofunctor of $\mathcal{S}$ that corresponds, on the level of tangle diagrams, to the insertion of an arc connecting the inner and outer boundary of the annulus. We use it to define and construct towers of extended affine Temperley-Lieb algebra modules. It allows us to construct a tower of modules acting on spaces of link patterns on the p…
We show that a variation of Milnor's $\barμ$-invariants, the so-called Campbell-Hausdorff invariants introduced recently by Stefan Papadima, are of finite type with respect to {\it marked singular links}. These link invariants are stronger than quantum invariants in the sense that they detect easily the non-invertibility of links with more than one components. It is still open whether some effectively computable knot invariants, e.g. finite type knot invariants (Vassiliev invariants), could detect the non-invertibility of knots.
We present an invariant of connected and oriented closed 3-manifolds based on a coribbon Weak Hopf Algebra H with a suitable left-integral. Our invariant can be understood as the generalization to Weak Hopf Algebras of the Hennings-Kauffman-Radford evaluation of an unoriented framed link using a dual quantum-trace. This quantum trace satisfies conditions that render the link evaluation invariant under Kirby moves. If H is a suitable finite-dimensional Hopf algebra (not weak), our invariant reduces to the Kauffman-Radford invariant for the dual of H. If H is the Weak Hopf Algebra Tannaka-Krein …
The Reshetikhin-Turaev invariant, Turaev's TQFT, and many related constructions rely on the encoding of certain tangles (n-string links, or ribbon n-handles) as n-forms on the coend of a ribbon category. We introduce the monoidal category of Hopf diagrams, and describe a universal encoding of ribbon string links as Hopf diagrams. This universal encoding is an injective monoidal functor and admits a straightforward monoidal retraction. Any Hopf diagram with n legs yields a n-form on the coend of a ribbon category in a completely explicit way. Thus computing a quantum invariant of a 3-manifold r…
We prove that for knots and links that are closures of 5-braids, single-colored ADO-invariant of third order coincides with Links-Gould polynomial with specific choice of variables. We also conjecture that this is true for any knots and links and provide some arguments for that.
We give a categorical setting in which Penrose graphical calculus naturally extends to graphs drawn on the boundary of a handlebody. We use it to introduce invariants of 3-manifolds presented by Heegaard splittings. We recover Kuperberg invariants when the category comes from an involutory Hopf algebra and Turaev-Viro invariants when the category is semi-simple and spherical.
In this paper I define the notion of a non-degenerate finitely semi-simple semi-strict spherical 2-category of non-zero dimension. Given such a 2-category I define a state-sum for any triangulated compact closed oriented 4-manifold and show that this state-sum does not depend on the chosen triangulation by proving invariance under the 4D Pachner moves. This invariant of piece-wise linear closed compact oriented 4-manifolds generalizes the Crane-Yetter invariant and probably it is also a generalization of the Crane-Frenkel invariant. As an example we show how to obtain a 2-category of the right…
The modular data of a modular category $\mathcal{C}$, consisting of the $S$-matrix and the $T$-matrix, is known to be an incomplete invariant of $\mathcal{C}$. More generally, the invariants of framed links and knots defined by a modular category as part of a topological quantum field theory can be viewed as numerical invariants of the category. Among these invariants, we study the invariant defined by the Borromean link colored by three objects. Thus we obtain a tensor that we call $B$. We derive a formula for the Borromean tensor for the twisted Drinfeld doubles of finite groups. Along with …
We generalize the notion of the quandle polynomial to the case of singquandles. We show that the singquandle polynomial is an invariant of finite singquandles. We also construct a singular link invariant from the singquandle polynomial and show that this new singular link invariant generalizes the singquandle counting invariant. In particular, using the new polynomial invariant, we can distinguish singular links with the same singquandle counting invariant.
We discuss multivariable invariants of colored links associated with the $N$-dimensional root of unity representation of the quantum group. The invariants for $N>2$ are generalizations of the multi-variable Alexander polynomial. The invariants vanish for disconnected links. We review the definition of the invariants through (1,1)-tangles. When $(N,3)=1$ and $N$ is odd, the invariant does not vanish for the parallel link (cable) of the knot $3_1$, while the Alexander polynomial vanishes for the cable link.
Topological interpretation of the link invariants associated with the Weinstein--Xu classical solutions of the quantum Yang-Baxter equation are provided.
We construct a state-sum type invariant of smooth closed oriented $4$-manifolds out of a $G$-crossed braided spherical fusion category ($G$-BSFC) for $G$ a finite group. The construction can be extended to obtain a $(3+1)$-dimensional topological quantum field theory (TQFT). The invariant of $4$-manifolds generalizes several known invariants in literature such as the Crane-Yetter invariant from a ribbon fusion category and Yetter's invariant from homotopy $2$-types. If the $G$-BSFC is concentrated only at the sector indexed by the trivial group element, a cohomology class in $H^4(G,U(1))$ can …
We study Coxeter racks over $\mathbb{Z}_n$ and the knot and link invariants they define. We exploit the module structure of these racks to enhance the rack counting invariants and give examples showing that these enhanced invariants are stronger than the unenhanced rack counting invariants.
Minor typographical errors fixed. Cochran constructed many links with Alexander module that of the unlink and some nonvanishing Milnor invariants, using as input commutators in a free group and as an invariant the longitudes of the links. We present a different and conjecturally complete construction, that uses elementary properties of clasper surgery, and a different invariant, the tree-part of the LMO invariant. Our method also constructs links with trivial higher Alexander modules and nontrivial Milnor invariants.
We define ambient isotopy invariants of oriented knots and links using the counting invariants of framed links defined by finite racks. These invariants reduce to the usual quandle counting invariant when the rack in question is a quandle. We are able to further enhance these counting invariants with 2-cocycles from the coloring rack's second rack cohomology satisfying a new degeneracy condition which reduces to the usual case for quandles.
We extend our previous work from arXiv:1903.06863 on biquandle module invariants of oriented surface-links to the case of unoriented surface-links using bikei modules. The resulting infinite family of enhanced invariants proves be effective at distinguishing unoriented and especially non-orientable surface-links; in particular, we show that these invariants are more effective than the bikei homset cardinality invariant alone at distinguishing non-orientable surface-links. Moreover, as another application we note that our previous biquandle modules which do not satisfy the bikei module axioms a…
We introduce and study in detail an invariant of (1,1) tangles. This invariant, derived from a family of four dimensional representations of the quantum superalgebra U_q[gl(2|1)], will be referred to as the Links-Gould invariant. We find that our invariant is distinct from the Jones, HOMFLY and Kauffman polynomials (detecting chirality of some links where these invariants fail), and that it does not distinguish mutants or inverses. The method of evaluation is based on an abstract tensor state model for the invariant that is quite useful for computation as well as theoretical exploration.
We investigate vertex operator algebras $L(k,0)$ associated with modular-invariant representations for an affine Lie algebra $A_1 ^{(1)}$ , where k is 'admissible' rational number. We show that VOA $L(k,0)$ is rational in the category $\cal O$ and find all irreducible representations in the category of weight modules.
Costantino--Geer--Patureau-Mirand proved relations between the Reshetikhin--Turaev link invariants and the re-normalized link invariants for knots. Their theorem says that residues of the re-normalized link invariants are given by the Reshetikhin--Turaev link invariants. However, in the case of links, the residues are vanish, so we can not obtain any relations from the residues. In this paper, we prove that the Reshetikhin--Turaev link invariants appear in higher order terms of the re-normalized link invariants for links which are plumbed.
Using basic topology and linear algebra, we define a plethora of invariants of boundary links whose values are power series with noncommuting variables. These turn out to be useful and elementary reformulations of an invariant originally defined by M. Farber.
The category of finite dimensional module over the quantum superalgebra U_q(sl(2|1)) is not semi-simple and the quantum dimension of a generic U_q(sl(2|1))-module vanishes. This vanishing happens for any value of q (even when q is not a root of unity). These properties make it difficult to create a fusion or modular category. Loosely speaking, the standard way to obtain such a category from a quantum group is: 1) specialize q to a root of unity; this forces some modules to have zero quantum dimension, 2) quotient by morphisms of modules with zero quantum dimension, 3) show the resulting catego…
Using the Racah coefficients in our earlier paper arXiv:1107.3918, we explicitly write the Chern-Simons field theory invariants for many non-torus knot and links. Further, we have tabulated the reformulated invariants which agrees with the Ooguri-Vafa conjecture for knots and Labastida-Marino-Vafa conjecture for links.
We define a category $v\mathcal{T}$ of tangles diagrams drawn on surfaces with boundaries. On the one hand we show that there is a natural functor from the category of virtual tangles to $v\mathcal{T}$ which induces an equivalence of categories. On the other hand, we show that $v\mathcal{T}$ is universal among ribbon categories equipped with a strong monoidal functor to a symmetric monoidal category. This is a generalization of the Shum-Reshetikhin-Turaev theorem characterizing the category of ordinary tangles as the free ribbon category. This gives a straightforward proof that all quantum inv…
The link invariant, arising from the cyclic quantum dilogarithm via the particular $R$-matrix construction, is proved to coincide with the invariant of triangulated links in $S^3$ introduced in R.M. Kashaev, Mod. Phys. Lett. A, Vol.9 No.40 (1994) 3757. The obtained invariant, like Alexander-Conway polynomial, vanishes on disjoint union of links. The $R$-matrix can be considered as the cyclic analog of the universal $R$-matrix associated with $U_q(sl(2))$ algebra.
