The Milnor triple linking number of string links by cut-and-paste topology

DOI10.2140/AGT.2014.14.1205MaRDI QIDQ2441273zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Publication date 24 March 2014

Published in Algebraic \& Geometric Topology (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1209.6381

Bott-Taubes integrals configuration space integrals finite type invariants string links triple linking number

Transfer for fiber spaces and bundles in algebraic topology (55R12) Discriminantal varieties and configuration spaces in algebraic topology (55R80) Embeddings in differential topology (57R40)

Abstract: Bott and Taubes constructed knot invariants by integrating differential forms along the fiber of a bundle over the space of knots, generalizing the Gauss linking integral. Their techniques were later used to construct real cohomology classes in spaces of knots and links in higher-dimensional Euclidean spaces. In previous work, we constructed cohomology classes in knot spaces with arbitrary coefficients by integrating via a Pontrjagin--Thom construction. We carry out a similar construction over the space of string links, but with a refinement in which configuration spaces are glued together according to the combinatorics of weight systems. This gluing is somewhat similar to work of Kuperberg and Thurston. We use a formula of Mellor for weight systems of Milnor invariants, and we thus recover the Milnor triple linking number for string links, which is in some sense the simplest interesting example of a class obtained by this gluing refinement of our previous methods. Along the way, we find a description of this triple linking number as a "degree" of a map from the 6-sphere to a quotient of the product of three 2-spheres.

Review text

Let \(\mathcal{L}_k\) be the space of \(k\)-component long links in \(\mathbb{R}^3\), i.e.~embeddings of \(k\) disjoint copies of \(\mathbb{R}^3\) that are fixed outside a compact set. The paper under review exhibits the Milnor triple linking number, an integer-valued invariant of 3-component string links, via a homotopy-theoretic Pontrjagin-Thom construction. More precisely, the author takes as the starting point the results from [\textit{R. Koytcheff} et al., J. Knot Theory Ramifications 22, No. 11, Article ID 1350061, 73 p. (2013; Zbl 1307.57015)] where it is shown that an adaptation of Bott-Taubes, or configuration space, integration to string links yields all finite type invariants of these spaces. Since Milnor invariants are finite type (for string links), it follows that some combination of these integrals gives the Milnor triple linking. This is precisely what the author first proves -- the sum of configuration space integrals over four particular diagrams is the triple linking. Next, the author applies a Pontrjagin-Thom approach that he developed in a previous work [\textit{R. Koytcheff}, Algebr. Geom. Topol. 9, No. 3, 1467--1501 (2009; Zbl 1175.57012)] to this situation. Rather than collapsing the boundaries of certain manifolds with corners that appear in Bott-Taubes integration, as he had previously done, he glues this boundary in order for its contribution to integration to cancel out. This part is inspired by Kuperberg and Thurston's techniques from ``Perturbative 3-manifold invariants by cut-and-paste topology. There is then a map from \(S^6\) to the quotient of these bundles modulo the glued boundary and further from this space to \(S^2\times S^2\times S^2\). The composite is the map that defines a certain 6-dimensional cohomology class on \(S^6\), and the main result is that pairing this class with the fundamental class gives precisely the triple linking. This interpretation of the Milnor triple linking number is nice, and the reviewer looks forward to seeing the promised work of realizing all the Bott-Taubes classes of string links via such gluing brought to fruition.

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