Lernaean knots and band surgery

The paper is devoted to a line of the knot theory related to the conjecture on the additivity of the crossing number for knots under connected sum. A series of weak versions of this conjecture are proved. Many of these versions are formulated in terms of the band surgery graph also called the H ( 2 ) H(2) -Gordian graph.

Multivariable connected sums and multiple polylogarithms

We introduce the multivariable connected sum which is a generalization of Seki–Yamamoto’s connected sum and prove the fundamental identity for these sums by series manipulation. This identity yields explicit procedures for evaluating multivariable connected sums and for giving relations among special values of multiple polylogarithms. In particular, our class of relations contains Ohno’s relations for multiple polylogarithms.

Connected sum of virtual knots and F-polynomials

It is known that connected sum of two virtual knots is not uniquely determined and depends on knot diagrams and choosing the points to be connected. But different connected sums of the same virtual knots cannot be distinguished by Kauffman’s affine index polynomial. For any pair of virtual knots [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] with [Formula: see text]-dwrithe [Formula: see text] we construct an infinite family of different connected sums of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] which can be distinguished by [Formula: see text]-polynomials.

Gompf connected sum for orbifolds and K-contact Smale–Barden manifolds

We develop the Gompf fiber connected sum operation for symplectic orbifolds. We use it to construct a symplectic 4-orbifold with b 1 = 0 {b_{1}=0} and containing symplectic surfaces of genus 1 and 2 that are disjoint and span the rational homology. This is used in turn to construct a K-contact Smale–Barden manifold with specified 2-homology that satisfies the known topological constraints with sharper estimates than the examples constructed previously. The manifold can be chosen spin or non-spin.

Topological entanglement and hyperbolic volume

The entanglement entropy of many quantum systems is difficult to compute in general. They are obtained as a limiting case of the Rényi entropy of index m, which captures the higher moments of the reduced density matrix. In this work, we study pure bipartite states associated with S3 complements of a two-component link which is a connected sum of a knot $$ \mathcal{K} $$ K and the Hopf link. For this class of links, the Chern-Simons theory provides the necessary setting to visualise the m-moment of the reduced density matrix as a three-manifold invariant Z($$ {M}_{{\mathcal{K}}_m} $$ M K m ), which is the partition function of $$ {M}_{{\mathcal{K}}_m} $$ M K m . Here $$ {M}_{{\mathcal{K}}_m} $$ M K m is a closed 3-manifold associated with the knot $$ \mathcal{K} $$ K m, where $$ \mathcal{K} $$ K m is a connected sum of m-copies of $$ \mathcal{K} $$ K (i.e., $$ \mathcal{K} $$ K #$$ \mathcal{K} $$ K . . . #$$ \mathcal{K} $$ K ) which mimics the well-known replica method. We analayse the partition functions Z($$ {M}_{{\mathcal{K}}_m} $$ M K m ) for SU(2) and SO(3) gauge groups, in the limit of the large Chern-Simons coupling k. For SU(2) group, we show that Z($$ {M}_{{\mathcal{K}}_m} $$ M K m ) can grow at most polynomially in k. On the contrary, we conjecture that Z($$ {M}_{{\mathcal{K}}_m} $$ M K m ) for SO(3) group shows an exponential growth in k, where the leading term of ln Z($$ {M}_{{\mathcal{K}}_m} $$ M K m ) is the hyperbolic volume of the knot complement S3\$$ \mathcal{K} $$ K m. We further propose that the Rényi entropies associated with SO(3) group converge to a finite value in the large k limit. We present some examples to validate our conjecture and proposal.

LS-category of moment-angle manifolds and higher order Massey products

Using the combinatorics of the underlying simplicial complex K, we give various upper and lower bounds for the Lusternik–Schnirelmann (LS) category of moment-angle complexes 𝒵 K {\mathcal{Z}_{K}} . We describe families of simplicial complexes and combinatorial operations which allow for a systematic description of the LS-category. In particular, we characterize the LS-category of moment-angle complexes 𝒵 K {\mathcal{Z}_{K}} over triangulated d-manifolds K for d ≤ 2 {d\leq 2} , as well as higher-dimensional spheres built up via connected sum, join, and vertex doubling operations. We show that the LS-category closely relates to vanishing of Massey products in H * ⁢ ( 𝒵 K ) {H^{*}(\mathcal{Z}_{K})} , and through this connection we describe first structural properties of Massey products in moment-angle manifolds. Some of the further applications include calculations of the LS-category and the description of conditions for vanishing of Massey products for moment-angle manifolds over fullerenes, Pogorelov polytopes and k-neighborly complexes, which double as important examples of hyperbolic manifolds.