Specification of chirality for links and knots (Q1381419)

The paper sets out a fairly restricted scheme to divide oriented knots and links into three classes, namely left-handed, right-handed or unclassified. In the case of a link the main invariant used is the sum of the pairwise linking numbers of the components. If this is zero then the link is unclassified unless it is possible to find an alternating diagram for it. In this case the sign of the writhe of a minimal alternating diagram is used, and failing this a test based on examining all possible flypings is applied. This appears to involve a potentially large amount of work for a relatively small payoff, and I suspect that for a rough classification scheme which could be readily used it would be worth recording the \({m\choose 2}\) pairwise linking numbers of an \(m\)-component link. These change in a very simple way when some of the orientations are changed, and the information can be read from a single diagram very quickly. For a bit of extra effort the calculation of Kauffman's bracket polynomial would go a long way towards identifying a given knot or link of small size.