Derivation of the HOMFLYPT knot polynomial via helicity and geometric quantization (Q2041868)

The HOMFLYPT polynomial \(P=P(\alpha,z)\) is an \textit{ambient isotopy} invariant of links defined by the \textit{skein} relation and a natural normalization. The paper under review uses the Maslov-Hörmander type techniques in order to obtain a new interpretation of the HOMFLYPT (particularly the Conway and the Jones) polynomial as a WKB-wave function through the geometric quantization of the Brylinski manifold of singular knots and links. Another main tool is the surgery via ``figure of eight'' knots. More precisely, the coefficient \(\alpha\) is a phase factor related to the helicity of a standard ``eight-figure'' while \(z\) comes from accounting for the variation of the number of components of a link.