Generalized duality for graphs on surfaces and the signed Bollobás-Riordan polynomial (Q1026002)

A very beautiful generalization of the Euler-Poincaré (or geometric) dual of a cellularly embedded graph is introduced in this very readable paper. After introducing the generalized duality and proving some of its basic properties, the author goes on to show that, up to a normalization, a signed version of Bollobás and Riordan's ribbon graph polynomial (a generalization of the Tutte polynomial to embedded graphs) is invariant under the generalized duality. These results are then used to relate various realizations of the Jones polynomial of a link or virtual link as an evaluation of the signed ribbon graph polynomial. The generalized duality introduced in this paper has been subsequently named `partial duality'. The duality introduced here appears to be a very far reaching generalization of duality. The language of ribbon graphs (as opposed to the language of cellularly embedded graphs) is used in this paper. Roughly speaking, if \(G\) is a ribbon graph and \(A\subseteq E(G)\) is a subset of the edges of \(G\), the partial dual \(G^A\) is obtained by `forming the dual only at the edges in \(A\)'. The usual Euler-Poincaré dual arises as the special case \(G^*=G^{E(G)}\). If \(G\) is a signed ribbon graph, then the signs of \(G^A\) are determined by reversing the signs of the edges in \(A\). The author provides several examples of partial duals to illustrate his definition. The behaviour of the signed ribbon graph polynomial under the partial duality operation is also examined. It is shown that \((yz)^{v(G)} R(G; x,y,z) = (yz)^{v(G^A)} R(G^A; x,y,z)\) along the surface \(xyz^2=1\). The author shows that the duality relation for the Tutte polynomial of a plane graph (\(T(G;x,y)=T(G^*;y,x)\)) and the duality relation for Bollobás and Riordan's ribbon graph polynomial are both consequences of his partial duality relation. Finally, applications to knot theory are given. There are various results in the literature that realize the Jones polynomial of a link or a virtual link as an evaluation of the (signed or unsigned) ribbon graph polynomial of an associated ribbon graph [\textit{S. Chmutov} and \textit{I. Pak}, ``The Kauffman bracket of virtual links and the Bollobás-Riordan polynomial'', Mosc. Math. J. 7, No. 3, 409--418 (2007; Zbl 1155.57004); \textit{S. Chmutov} and \textit{J. Voltz}, ``Thistlethwaite's theorem for virtual links'', J. Knot Theory Ramifications 17, No. 10, 1189--1198 (2008; Zbl 1163.57001); \textit{O. Dasbach, D. Futer, E. Kalfagianni, X.-S. Lin} and \textit{N. Stoltzfus}, J. Comb. Theory, Ser. B 98, No.~2, 384--399 (2008; Zbl 1135.05015)]. As an application of his results, the author explains how partial duality and the invariance of the signed ribbon graph polynomial under partial duality unify these realizations of the Jones polynomial. (Two of these realizations of the Jones polynomial had been previously unified in [\textit{I. Moffatt}, ``Unsigned state models for the Jones polynomial'', Ann. Comb.].) In fact, the idea of partial duality arose from the author's attempts to unify the various realizations of the Jones polynomial as a ribbon graph polynomial and the ideas used in these realizations, but the idea of partial duality has a reach that far exceeds these initial aims, as is evidenced by numerous recent papers on the subject.