Configuration space integrals and Taylor towers for spaces of knots (Q2502942)

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Configuration space integrals and Taylor towers for spaces of knots
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    Configuration space integrals and Taylor towers for spaces of knots (English)
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    13 September 2006
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    In [J. Math. Phys. 35, No. 10, 5247--5287 (1994; Zbl 0863.57004)], \textit{R. Bott} and \textit{C. Taubes} defined configuration space integrals which were later used to produce universal finite type invariants by \textit{D. Altschuler} and \textit{L. Freidel} in [Commun. Math. Phys. 170, No. 1, 41--62 (1995; Zbl 0843.57005)] and \textit{D. Thurston} in [``Integral expressions for the Vassiliev knot invariants'', Senior Thesis, Harvard University (1995)]. In the paper reviewed here, the author extends these integrals to the following setting: A \textit{long knot} is an embedding of \(\mathbb R\) in \(\mathbb R^n\) agreeing with a fixed embedding outside a compact set. Let \(\mathcal K_n\) be the space of such knots for \(n\geq 3\). One defines Taylor approximations to \(\mathcal K_n\) as \textit{T. G. Goodwillie} and \textit{M. Weiss} in [Geom. Topol. 3, 103--118 (1999; Zbl 0927.57028)] by studying ``punctured knots'', or embeddings of the interval with some number of subintervals removed in certain cubical diagrams and taking homotopy limits. If \(n>3\) this tower converges to \(\mathcal K_n\). In this paper, the author shows that the Bott-Taubes integrals factor through the stages of the Taylor tower.
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    knots
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    spaces of knots
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    calculus of functors
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    configuration spaces
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    chord diagrams
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    finite type invariants
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