N-quandles of spatial graphs

arXiv2207.08893MaRDI QIDQ6405375FDOQ6405375

Authors: Veronica Backer Peral, Blake Mellor 

Publication date: 18 July 2022

Abstract: The fundamental quandle is a powerful invariant of knots, links and spatial graphs, but it is often difficult to determine whether two quandles are isomorphic. One approach is to look at quotients of the quandle, such as the $n$-quandle defined by Joyce cite{JO}; in particular, Hoste and Shanahan cite{HS2} classified the knots and links with finite $n$-quandles. Mellor and Smith cite{MS} introduced the $N$-quandle of a link as a generalization of Joyce's $n$-quandle, and proposed a classification of the links with finite $N$-quandles. We generalize the $N$-quandle to spatial graphs, and investigate which spatial graphs have finite $N$-quandles. We prove basic results about $N$-quandles for spatial graphs, and conjecture a classification of spatial graphs with finite $N$-quandles, extending the conjecture for links in cite{MS}. We verify the conjecture in several cases, and also present a possible counterexample.

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Planar graphs; geometric and topological aspects of graph theory (05C10) Generalized knots (virtual knots, welded knots, quandles, etc.) (57K12)

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