Annular Rasmussen invariants: properties and 3-braid classification (Q6164751)

The author studies properties of braid closures viewed as links in the thickened annulus \(A \times I\) through the lens of annular Khovanov homology as defined in [\textit{M. M. Asaeda} et al., Algebr. Geom. Topol. 4, 1177--1210 (2004; Zbl 1070.57008)]. In particular, the paper focuses on the analogue of the Rasmussen invariant \(s\) in classical Khovanov homology, extended to the annular setting in [\textit{J. E. Grigsby} et al., Pure Appl. Math. Q. 13, No. 3, 389--436 (2018; Zbl 1411.57013)]. This analogue is denoted by \(d_t\), takes the form of a piecewise-linear function \([0,1]\rightarrow\mathbb{R}\), and is capable of detecting right-veeringness and obstructing quasi-positivity of braid closures. The author first shows that for a fixed \(n\), there are only finitely many piecewise-linear functions \(f_i:[0,1]\rightarrow\mathbb{R}\) that, together with the writhe, determine \(d_t\) for an \(n\)-braid closure. It follows that for \(n=3\), there are precisely three such \(f_i\), in turn fully determined by \(s\); this enables the author to compute \(s\) for all 3-braid closures. Moreover, the author also establishes that for 3-braid closures, the transverse link invariant \(\psi\) introduced in [\textit{O. Plamenevskaya}, Math. Res. Lett. 13, No. 4, 571--586 (2006; Zbl 1143.57006)] is fully specified by \(s\) and the self-linking number, hence is not effective. A discussion of connections between \(d_t\) and \(\psi\) and Floer-theoretic transverse link invariants \(\widehat{\Theta}\) and \(c(T,\varphi)\) in the case of 3-braid closures is featured.