\(N\)-quandles of links (Q2664086)

To each oriented link \(L\) can be associated a quandle \(Q(L)\) called the fundamental quandle, which is known to be a complete invariant up to change of orientation. This result has led to a surge in the study of quandles. Unfortunately, the classification problem for quandles is as hard as the classification problem for knots itself. Except for the unknot and the Hopf link, the fundamental quandle is always infinite. Thus, it is natural to look for nice quotients of the fundamental quandles. It follows from recent work of the reviewer with his collaborators [\textit{V. G. Bardakov} et al., Monatsh. Math. 191, No. 4, 679--690 (2020; Zbl 1481.57006)] that all link quandles are residually finite, and hence there are many potentially useful quotients to study. One such quotient is the \(n\)-quandle introduced by Joyce in his thesis, cf. [\textit{D. Joyce}, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 23, 37--65 (1982; Zbl 0474.57003)]. Recently, \textit{J. Hoste} and \textit{P. D. Shanahan} [Algebr. Geom. Topol. 17, No. 5, 2807--2823 (2017; Zbl 1397.57009)] proved that the \(n\)-quandle of a link \(L\) is finite if and only if \(L\) is the singular locus of a spherical 3-orbifold with underlying space \(\mathbb{S}^3\). This result together with \textit{W. D. Dunbar}'s classification of all geometric, non-hyperbolic 3-orbifolds [Rev. Mat. Univ. Complutense Madr. 1, No. 1--3, 67--99 (1988; Zbl 0655.57008)] give a complete list of all links in \(\mathbb{S}^3\) with finite \(n\)-quandles for some \(n\). \par In the paper under review, the authors generalize the notion of an \(n\)-quandle to what they refer to as an \(N\)-quandle, where \(N= (n_1,\ldots,n_k)\) and \(k\) is the number of algebraic components of the quandle. It is shown that if there is a spherical orbifold with underlying space \(\mathbb{S}^3\) whose singular locus is the link \(L\) with component \(i\) labeled \(n_i\), then the \((n_1, \ldots, n_k)\)-quandle of \(L\) is finite. The authors conjecture that the converse also holds. A proof of the conjecture would lead to a classification of links with finite \(N\)-quandles for some \(N\).