Colored finite type invariants and a multi-variable analogue of the Conway polynomial

arXivmath/0312007MaRDI QIDQ6473408FDOQ6473408

Publication date: 29 November 2003

Abstract: The multi-variable Alexander polynomial (in the form of Conway's potential function), when stripped of a redundant summand, is shown to be of the form Nabla_L(x_1-x_1^{-1},..,x_m-x_m^{-1}) for some polynomial Nabla_L over Z. The Conway polynomial

abla_L(z) coincides with zNabla_L(z,..,z). The coefficients of Nabla_L and of the power series Nabla^*_L:=Nabla_L/(Nabla_{K_1}...Nabla_{K_m}), where K_i denote the components of L, are finite type invariants in the sense of Kirk-Livingston. When m=2, they are integral liftings of Milnor's invariants �armu(1..12..2) of even length, including, in the case of Nabla^*_L, Cochran's derived invariants �eta^k. The coefficients of Nabla_L and Nabla^*_L are closely related to certain Q-valued invariants of (genuine) finite type, among which we find alternative extensions hat�eta^k of �eta^k to the case lk e 0, such that 2hat�eta^1/lk^2 is the Casson-Walker invariant of the Q-homology sphere obtained by 0-surgery on the link components. Each coefficient of Nabla^*_L (hence of abla^*_L:= abla_L/( abla_{K_1}...

abla_{K_m})) is invariant under TOP isotopy and under sufficiently close C^0-approximation, and can be extended, preserving these properties, to all topological links. The same holds for H^*_L and F^*_L, where H_L and F_L are certain exponential parameterizations of the two-variable HOMFLY and Kauffman polynomials. Next, we show that no difference between PL isotopy and TOP isotopy (as equivalence relations on PL links in S^3) can be detected by finite type invariants. These are corollaries of the fact that any type k invariant (genuine or Kirk-Livingston), well-defined up to PL isotopy, assumes same values on k-quasi-isotopic links.

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