skein modules of links in cylinders over surfaces绞模块链接在汽缸表面.pdf

IJMMS 32:9 (2002) 515–554 PII. S016117120201181X © Hindawi Publishing Corp. SKEIN MODULES OF LINKS IN CYLINDERS OVER SURFACES JENS LIEBERUM Received 3 February 2001 and in revised form 18 December 2001 We define the Conway skein module (M) of ordered based links in a 3-manifold M . This module gives rise to (M)-valued invariants of usual links in M . We determine a basis of the Z[z]-module (Σ × [0, 1])/Tor ( (Σ × [0, 1])), where Σ is the real projective plane or a surface with boundary. For cylinders over the Möbius strip or the projective plane, we derive special properties of the Conway skein module, among them a refinement of a theorem of Hartley and Kawauchi about the Conway polynomial of strongly positive am- phicheiral knots in S 3 . In addition, we determine the Homfly and Kauffman skein modules of Σ × [0, 1] where Σ is an oriented surface with boundary. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 57M25. ˜ 1. Introduction. In 1969, Conway found a normalized version ∇ of the Alexander polynomial of a link. It satisfies a so-called skein relation on certain triples of links differing only by local modifications, namely, ˜ ˜ ˜ ∇ − ∇ = z ∇ (1.1) ˜ (see [1, 7]). The Conway polynomial also satisfies ∇(O ) = δ , where O is the trivial n 1n n link with n components and δij is 1 if i = j , and 0 otherwise. The skein relation to- ˜ ˜ gethe