\(C_n\)-moves and the HOMFLY polynomials of links (Q2493411)

A \(C_n\)-move is a local move for oriented links. A \(C_1\)-move is a crossing change and a \(C_2\)-move is equivalent to a delta move. It is known that two knots have the same finite type invariants of order less than \(n\) if and only if they are related by a finite sequence of \(C_n\)-moves. The main results of this paper are the following, each provided with some examples. [Theorem 2.7] For two links \(L\) and \(M\) that are related by a \(C_n\)-move, the author calculates the difference of the HOMFLY polynomials \(P(L; t, z) - P(M; t, z)\) in terms of the HOMFLY polynomials obtained from the link \(L\) by changing or smoothing some crossings, which is a generalization of an earlier result by \textit{T. Kanenobu} and \textit{R. Nikkuni} [Topology Appl. 146--147, 91--104 (2005; Zbl 1080.57010)]. [Theorem 3.11] For two knots \(L\) and \(M\) that are related by a \(C_n\)-move, the author calculates the difference of the \(n\)th derivatives of the first HOMFLY coefficient polynomials \(P^{(n)}_0(L; t, z) - P^{(n)}_0(M; t, z)\) to be \(\pm 8\) if \(n = 2\) and \(0\) or \(\pm n!\cdot 2^n\) if \(n \geq 3\), where for a knot \(K\), \(P^{(n)}_{2i}(K; t, z)\) denotes the \(n\)th derivative of the \((2i)\)th coefficient of the HOMFLY polynomial \(P(K; t, z)\) in the expression \(P(K; t, z) = \sum_{i \geq 0} P_{2i}(K; t)z^{2i},\) which is a finite type invariant of order \(n\). In Section 4, the author obtains some results on the Conway polynomials and the constant terms of the Q polynomials.