HOMFLY-PT polynomial and normal rulings of Legendrian solid torus links (Q542640)

This article studies invariants of Legendrian knots in the 1-jet space of the circle, \(J^1(S^1)\). The focus of the paper is the relationship between the HOMFLY-PT polynomial and the \(2\)-graded ruling polynomial, and the main theorem describes how to recover the \(2\)-graded ruling polynomial from a suitably specialized version of the HOMFLY-PT polynomial. This paper extends results of the author in [``The Thurston-Bennequin number, Kauffman polynomial, and ruling invariants of a Legendrian link: the Fuchs conjecture and beyond.'' Int. Math. Res. Not. 2006, No.~9, Article ID 78591, 15 p. (2006; Zbl 1106.57012)], which established a similar relationship for Legendrian knots in the standard contact \(\mathbb{R}^3\). Following some background on normal rulings of front projections, the author describes a collection of basic fronts on the annulus. He uses the \(0\)-graded ruling polynomial to show that for \(m\neq n\), the products of basic fronts \(A_mA_n\) and \(A_nA_m\) are not Legendrian isotopic links; this generalizes a similar result of \textit{L. Traynor} [``Legendrian circular helix links.'' Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 122, No.~2, 301--314 (1997; Zbl 0902.57006)]. In [``The Conway and Kauffman modules of the solid torus.'' M. Boileau et al.(eds.), Progress in knot theory and related topics. Paris: Hermann. Trav. Cours. 56, 90--102 (1997; Zbl 0928.57014)], \textit{V. Turaev} proved that monomials in the basic fronts form a basis for the HOMFLY-PT skein module \(\mathcal{C}\). This skein module has a subalgebra \(\mathcal{C}^+\) isomorphic to the algebra of symmetric functions on countably many variables. The subalgebra \(\mathcal{C}^+\) admits a bilinear form which can be described in terms of the \(2\)-graded ruling polynomial for the product of two basic fronts. In Theorem 5.6, the author identifies this bilinear form with the inner product given by taking the Schur functions as an orthonormal basis for \(\mathcal{C}^+\). In Section 6, the author uses this inner product to define a \(\mathbb{Z}[a^{\pm1}, z^{\pm1}]\)-module morphism from \(\mathcal{C}\) to \(\mathbb{Z}[a^{\pm1}, z^{\pm1}]\). The image of the HOMFLY-PT polynomial under this map is denoted by \(\widehat{P}_L(a, z)\). Theorem 6.3 states that the coefficient of \(a^{-\text{tb}(L)}\) in \(\widehat{P}_L(a, z)\) is the \(2\)-graded ruling polynomial \(R^2_L(z)\) of the Legendrian link \(L\). It follows that a Legendrian link in \(J^1(S^1)\) which admits a \(2\)-graded ruling must have the maximal possible Thurston-Bennequin number among all representatives of the underlying smooth knot type.