Finite-type invariants of w-knotted objects. I: \(w\)-knots and the Alexander polynomial (Q276597)

This chatty paper examines deep interrelationships in the mathematics of knots, and their imaginary generalizations, showing many new ways of looking at the graphology of diagrams. An interesting table (Figure 1) compares and contrasts the topological, combinatorial and algebraic properties of usual, virtual, and the ``wider but weaker'' class of \(w\)-knots. The authors' main result (Theorem 3.26) is that ``the universal finite-type invariant of \(w\)-knots is essentially the Alexander polynomial.''