Modelling supercoiled DNA knots and catenanes by means of a new regular isotopy invariant (Q1182600)

This paper introduces an new regular isotopy invariant for links that can be used in the modelling of DNA. The polynomial is defined as follows. If \({\mathcal U}_{[d,w]}\) is a diagram of the unlink with Whitney degree \(d\) and writhe \(w\) then to any link \(K\) one can associate a unique polynomial \(\Omega K\in{\mathbf Z}[\alpha^{\pm 1},z^{\pm 1}]\) satisfying the axioms: \[ (\Omega 1) \text{if }K\approx K'\text{ then }\Omega K=\Omega K'; (\Omega 2) \Omega{\mathcal U}_{[d,w]}=\alpha^ w z^ d; \text{ and } (\Omega 3) \Omega K_ +-\Omega K_ -=z\Omega K_ 0. \] The subscripts \(-\), \(+\) and 0 designate the different elementary crossings of two strands. The paper proves that \(\Omega K\) is a regular isotopy invariant and relates it to other knot polynomials. The relationship of the invariant to supercoiling of DNA is exploited to obtain results on DNA recombination.