On invariants of Morse knots (Q1612199)

A Morse knot is a knot in \({\mathbb R}^3\) for which the height function has a finite number of non-degenerate critical points, and a long Morse knot is in effect a Morse (1,1)-tangle. In this paper the authors study long Morse knots up to Morse equivalence, i.e. isotopy through Morse knots. They show that, besides the obvious invariants of unconstrained isotopy and the number of critical points, there are some Vassiliev invariants of Morse knots which can distinguish two Morse embeddings of the figure eight knot with the same number of critical points, in contradiction to previous claims. They discuss briefly the appropriate stabilisation move for Morse knots which generates isotopy, and compare this with stabilisation moves for Legendrian and transverse knots and for closed braids. They then make use of the Kontsevich integral to produce chord diagrams and Vassiliev invariants in a suitably restricted setting. The paper ends with some calculations directed inconclusively at the question of whether composition of long Morse knots is commutative, as it is for unrestricted (1,1)-tangles.