On Khovanov homology of quasi-alternating links (Q2120557)

The class of alternating links has played an important role in the development of knot theory since its early age. In particular, the study of their Jones polynomials led to the solution of long-lasting conjectures in knot theory. The main purpose of this paper is to introduce a new obstruction for a link to be quasi-alternating in terms of Khovanov homology. More precisely, the length of any gap in the Jones polynomial of any quasi-alternating link is one. This establishes a weaker version of Conjecture 2.3 in [\textit{N. Chbili} and \textit{K. Qazaqzeh}, Topology Appl. 264, 1--11 (2019; Zbl 1425.57004)]. Moreover, a lower bound for the determinant of any such link is obtained in terms of the breadth of its Jones polynomial. This establishes a weaker version of Conjecture 3.8 in [\textit{K. Qazaqzeh} and \textit{N. Chbili}, Algebr. Geom. Topol. 15, No. 3, 1847--1862 (2015; Zbl 1322.57013)]. The main result of this paper essentially relies on establishing the Knight Move Conjecture [\textit{D. Bar-Natan}, Algebr. Geom. Topol. 2, 337--370 (2002; Zbl 0998.57016), Conjecture 1] for the class of quasi-alternating links.