Enhancements of rack counting invariants via dynamical cocycles (Q713035)

Racks are algebraic structures for defining representational and functorial invariants of framed oriented knots and links. A rack generalizes the notion of a quandle. More formally, a rack is a set \(X\) equipped with a binary operation \( \triangleright : X\times X\rightarrow X\) satisfying the following two conditions: i) For each \(x\in X\), the map \(f_x : X \rightarrow X\) defined by \(f_x(y) = y \triangleright x\) is invertible, with inverse \(f^{-1}_x(y)\) denoted by \(y\triangleright ^{-1} x\). ii) For each \(x, y, z \in X\), we have \((x \triangleright y)\triangleright z = (x\triangleright z)\triangleright (y\triangleright z)\). A quandle is a rack with the added condition: iii) For all \(x\in X\), we have \(x\triangleright x = x\). In [\textit{S. Nelson}, ``Link invariants from finite racks'', \url{arXiv:0808.0029}], a property of finite racks known as rack rank or rack characteristic was used to define an integer-valued invariant of unframed oriented knots and links using nonquandle racks, known as the integral rack counting invariant. An enhancement of a counting invariant uses a Reidemester invariant signature for each homomorphism. In [\textit{A. Haas, G. Heckel, S. Nelson, J. Yuen} and \textit{Q. Zhang}, Osaka J. Math. 49, No. 2, 471--488 (2012; Zbl 1245.57009)] an enhancement of the integral rack counting invariant was defined using a modification of the rack module structure from [\textit{N. Andruskiewitsch} and \textit{M. Graña}, Adv. Math. 178, No. 2, 177--243 (2003; Zbl 1032.16028)]. In the paper under review, a generalization is given of the enhancement from [Haas et al., loc. cit.] using a modified version of an algebraic structure defined in [Andruskiewitsch et al., loc. cit.], known as a dynamical cocycle. In particular, the authors use dynamical cocycles satisfying a condition named N-reduced, and this produces an enhancement of the rack counting invariant.