An invariant of link cobordisms from Khovanov homology (Q1766300)

\textit{M. Khovanov} [Duke Math. J. 101, No.3, 359-426 (2000; Zbl 0960.57005)] associated to any diagram \(D\) of an oriented link a chain complex \(C(D)\) of abelian groups whose Euler characteristic is the Jones polynomial. He proved that for any two diagrams of the same link the corresponding complexes are chain equivalent and hence their homology groups are link invariants. M. Khovanov also suggested the following TQFT construction of an invariant of a link cobordism. Any link cobordism can be described as a one-parameter family \(D_t\), \(t\in [0,1]\) of planar diagrams, called a \textit{movie}. At finitely many times \(t\) the diagram \(D_t\) undergoes a local move which is either a Reidemeister move or a Morse modification. Khovanov explained how local moves induce chain maps between complexes, hence homomorphisms between the homology groups. Hence, the composition of these chain maps defines a homomorphism between the homology groups of the diagrams of the boundary links. Khovanov conjectured that, up to multiplication by \(-1\), this isomorphism is invariant under ambient isotopy of the link cobordism. The paper under review gives examples showing that the Khovanov conjecture, in its original form, is incorrect. However, the author proves that the conjecture is true in a slightly different form, namely if one requires that the ambient isotopy leaves the links of the boundary setwise fixed. The main result of the paper is the following theorem: \textbf{Theorem:} \textit{For oriented links \(L_0\) and \(L_1\), presented by diagrams \(D_0\) and \(D_1\), an oriented link cobordism \(\Sigma\) from \(L_0\) to \(L_1\) defines a homomorphism \({\mathcal H}(D_0)\to {\mathcal H}(D_1)\), invariant up to multiplication by \(-1\) under ambient isotopy of \(\Sigma\) leaving \(\partial \Sigma\) setwise fixed. Moreover, this invariant is non-trivial.} This implies the existence of a family of derived invariants of link cobordisms with the same source and target which are analogous to the classical Lefschetz one of endomorphisms of manifolds.