Chen-Khovanov spectra for tangles (Q2153823)

This paper furthers the endeavor of providing stable homotopy refinements of invariants of knots, links, and tangles. Specifically, this paper gives stable homotopy refinements of Chen-Khovanov [\textit{Y. Chen} and \textit{M. Khovanov}, Fundam. Math. 225, 23--44 (2014; Zbl 1321.57031)] and Stroppel's [\textit{C. Stroppel}, Compos. Math. 145, No. 4, 954--992 (2009; Zbl 1187.17004)] tangle invariants, which are defined using platform algebras. These platform algebras \(\mathcal{A}^n\) have the property that the Grothendieck group of their category of projective modules is isomorphic to \(V^{\otimes n}\), where \(V\) is the fundamental two-dimensional representation of \(U_q(sl_2)\). Chen-Khovanov and Stroppel then assign an \((\mathcal{A}^n, \mathcal{A}^m)\)-bimodule to an \((m,n)\)-tangle. These platform algebras and tangle invariants bear similarities to Khovanov's arc algebras and tangle invariants, which extend Khovanov homology. In a previous paper [\textit{T. Lawson} et al., ``Khovanov spectra for tangles'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1706.02346}], the authors provided stable homotopy refinements of Khovanov's arc algebras and tangle invariants. For \((0,0)\)-tangles (i.e., links), Khovanov's tangle invariant gives Khovanov homology, which categorifies the Jones polynomial. These stable homotopy refinements have proven incredibly useful: they provide new algebraic structures on Khovanov homology, and in some cases are strictly stronger than Khovanov homology. Therefore, the stable homotopy refinements of platform algebras and their corresponding tangle invariants might have similar significance. In this paper, the authors also study the topological Hochschild homology of these invariants, and relate it to annular Khovanov homology.