Filtrations on instanton homology (Q2449683)

The authors defined the instanton homology \(I^{\sharp}(K)\) for an oriented link in \(S^{3}\) [\textit{P. B. Kronheimer} and \textit{T. S. Mrowka}, Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 113, 97--208 (2011; Zbl 1241.57017)] and constructed a spectral sequence which has Khovanov homology as its first page and converges to instanton homology. As an important consequence of the construction, they proved that Khovanov homology detects the unknot. In the current paper, they introduce two additional gradings to the Khovanov complex, the cohomological grading \(h\) and the quantum grading \(q\). Rather than working with planar projections of links, the authors introduce the more flexible notion of a pseudo-diagram. In the latter case, the cobordisms between two states can be non-orientable. The \(q\) grading and the \(h\) grading are defined by involving the self-intersection numbers of such cobordisms. In their first theorem, they construct a differential \(d_{\sharp}\) on the Khovanov complex \(C\) such that the homology of \((C, d_{\sharp})\) is \(I^{\sharp}(K)\), where \(d_{\sharp}\) preserves the filtrations introduced by the \(q\) grading and the \(h\) grading. They show that \(d_{\sharp}\) is equal to the Khovanov differential to leading order in the \(q\)-filtration (that is both differentials have order \(\geq (1,0)\), and the difference \(d_{\sharp}-d_{\text{Kh}}\) has order \(\geq (1,2)\). Any linear combination of the \(h\) grading and the \(q\) grading naturally provides a spectral sequence for the complex \((C, d_{\sharp})\). The second theorem of the paper addresses the topological invariance of these spectral sequences.