Paper detail

Even and odd Kauffman bracket ideals for genus-1 tangles

This paper refines previous work by the first author. We study the question of which links in the 3-sphere can be obtained as closures of a given 1-manifold in an unknotted solid torus in the 3-sphere (or genus-1 tangle) by adjoining another 1-manifold in the complementary solid torus. We distinguish between even and odd closures, and define even and odd versions of the Kauffman bracket ideal. These even and odd Kauffman bracket ideals are used to obstruct even and odd tangle closures. Using a basis of Habiro's for the even Kauffman bracket skein module of the solid torus, we define bases for the even and odd skein module of the solid torus relative to two points. These even and odd bases allow us to compute a finite list of generators for the even and odd Kauffman bracket ideals of a genus-1 tangle. We do this explicitly for three examples. Furthermore, we use the even and odd Kauffman bracket ideals to conclude in some cases that the determinants of all even/odd closures of a genus-1 tangle possess a certain divisibility.