Mixed quantum skew Howe duality and link invariants of type \(A\) (Q1730844)

The paper under review defines a ribbon category \(\mathsf{Sp}(\beta)\) which depends on a parameter \(\beta\). For \(\beta=m-n\), this category describes the monoidal category of representations of \(U_q(\mathfrak{gl}_{m\vert n})\) generated by exterior powers of the vector representation and their duals. The main result of the paper is an extension of skew Howe duality to a more general picture where both exterior powers of the vector representation and of its dual appear at the same time, and where one can make sense of the limit \(m\to\infty\) by taking a generic value of the parameter \(\beta\). This allows one to realize \(\mathsf{Sp}(\beta)\) as a direct limit of quotients of a dual idempotented quantum group. Consequently, the category \(\mathsf{Sp}(\beta)\) gives a unified natural setting for defining the colored \(\mathfrak{gl}_{m\vert n}\) link invariant (for \(\beta=m-n\)) and the colored HOMFLY-PT polynomial (for \(\beta\) generic).