On link homology theories from extended cobordisms (Q611826)

The authors construct extensions of the category Cob of 2-dimensional cobordisms and of the category NesCob of embedded 2-cobordisms modulo the unknotting relation. For Cob they recover the Khovanov and the odd Khovanov homologies as strict and semistrict extensions respectively. For NesCob they construct nested Khovanov homology. Let Cob be the category of 2-dimensional cobordisms. The objects in Cob are finite ordered sets of circles and the morphisms are isotopy classes of smooth 2-dimensional cobordisms. Theorem 1.2 of the paper describes the morphisms in Cob in terms of generators and relations. The category NesCob of embedded cobordisms is defined in Section 2 of the paper. The objects in NesCob are finite collections of disjoint circles embedded into the plane, and the morphisms are defined in terms of generators and relations that are illustrated in Section 2. By replacing one of the relations that defines NesCob, the authors define a strict monoidal 2-category NesCob\(_1\), which is shown in Lemma 2.7 to be a \(\mathbb Z_2\)-extension of NesCob. They then define a functor \(F\): NesCob\(_1\) \(\rightarrow\) \(R\)-Mod into the category of finite projective modules over a commutative unital ring \(R\), which determines a strict extended quantum field theory (EQFT) based on NesCob\(_1\). Given a generic diagram \(D\) of an oriented link \(L\) in \(S^3\), denote by \([\![D]\!]\) its Khovanov hypercube of resolutions. Applying the (1+1) Khovanov topological quantum field theory (TQFT) to \([\![D]\!]\) determines a complex of \(R\)-modules \((F_{\text{Kh}}[\![D]\!],\partial_{\text{Kh}})\). Applying the functor \(F\) to \([\![D]\!]\) the authors define a chain complex \((F[\![D]\!],\partial)\). Theorem 1 of the paper shows that these two complexes are isomorphic, and Theorem 2 of the paper says that any strict EQFT based on a \(\mathbb Z_2\)-extension of NesCob, which agrees with Khovanov's TQFT after reducing the coefficients modulo 2, gives rise to a link invariant homology theory isomorphic to that of Khovanov. In Section 4 of the paper the authors relate Cob\(_0\), the quotient of Cob by all morphisms of nonzero genus and spheres, to the Odd Khovanov homology defined by \textit{P. Ozsváth}, \textit{J. Rasmussen} and \textit{Z. Szabó} [Odd Khovanov homology, \url{arXiv:0710.4300v1} (2007)]. A significant portion of the paper consists of well drawn illustrations of the cobordisms and relations that define the objects and morphisms in the categories discussed in the paper.