Shadows, ribbon surfaces, and quantum invariants (Q2360092)

An \(n\)-component link \(L\subset S^3\) is called a ribbon link if it bounds \(n\) immersed disks with only ``ribbon'' singularities -- like a ribbon through a piece of paper. \textit{M. Eisermann} showed in [Geom. Topol. 13, No. 2, 623--660 (2009; Zbl 1178.57002)] that the Jones polynomial of an \(n\)-component ribbon link is divisible by the Jones polynomial of the \(n\)-component trivial link. This result is one of the very few examples where the Jones polynomial determines the topology of links. Eisermann's proof is based on the skein relations of the Jones polynomial. The paper under review uses the Turaev shadows to give a new proof of Eisermann's result. In doing so, the authors also obtain similar results for colored knotted trivalent graphs in \(\sharp_g(S^2\times S^1)\), the connected sum of \(g\) copies of \(S^2\times S^1\). For knots in \(\sharp_g(S^2\times S^1)\), these results lead to a lower bound of the ribbon genus, which is shown to be sharp for some families of knots.