Fusion and fission in graph complexes

We analyze a functor from cyclic operads to chain complexes first considered by Getzler and Kapranov and also Markl. This functor is a generalization of the graph homology considered by Kontsevich, which was defined for the three operads Comm, Assoc, and Lie. More specifically we show that these chain complexes have a rich algebraic structure in the form of families of operations defined by fusion and fission. These operations fit together to form uncountably many Lie-infinity and co-Lie-infinity structures. In particular, the chain complexes have a bracket and cobracket which are compatible in the Lie bialgebra sense on a certain natural subcomplex.Comment: This is the final version. The published version, which is slightly different, is available at http://nyjm.albany.edu:8000/PacJ/2003/v209-2.ht

Extending partial isometries of generalized metric spaces

We consider generalized metric spaces taking distances in an arbitrary ordered commutative monoid, and investigate when a class $\mathcal{K}$ of finite generalized metric spaces satisfies the Hrushovski extension property: for any $A\in\mathcal{K}$ there is some $B\in\mathcal{K}$ such that $A$ is a subspace of $B$ and any partial isometry of $A$ extends to a total isometry of $B$. Our main result is the Hrushovski property for the class of finite generalized metric spaces over a semi-archimedean monoid $\mathcal{R}$. When $\mathcal{R}$ is also countable, this can be used to show that the isometry group of the Urysohn space over $\mathcal{R}$ has ample generics. Finally, we prove the Hrushovski property for classes of integer distance metric spaces omitting triangles of uniformly bounded odd perimeter. As a corollary, given odd $n\geq 3$, we obtain ample generics for the automorphism group of the universal, existentially closed graph omitting cycles of odd length bounded by $n$.Comment: 12 pages, final version incorporating referee comment

Homotopy approximations to the space of knots, Feynman diagrams, and a conjecture of Scannell and Sinha

Scannell and Sinha considered a spectral sequence to calculate the rational homotopy groups of spaces of long knots in n-dimensional Euclidean space, for n greater than or equal to 4. At the end of their paper they conjecture that when n is odd, the terms on the antidiagonal on the second page precisely give the space of primitive Feynman diagrams related to the theory of Vassiliev invariants. In this paper we prove that conjecture. This has the application that the path components of the terms of the Taylor tower for the space of classical long knots are in one-to-one correspondence with quotients of the module of Feynman diagrams, even though the Taylor tower does not actually converge. This provides strong evidence that the stages of the Taylor tower give rise to universal Vassiliev knot invariants in each degree.Comment: Published version. Cleaned up some expositio

A knot bounding a grope of class n is n/2-trivial

In this article it is proven that if a knot, K, bounds an imbedded grope of class n, then the knot is n/2-trivial in the sense of Gusarov and Stanford. That is, all type n/2 invariants vanish on K. We also give a simple way to construct all knots bounding a grope of a given class. It is further shown that this result is optimal in the sense that for any n there exist gropes which are not n/2+1- trivial.Comment: 32 pages, 25 figures, additional reference material adde

Forking and dividing in Henson graphs

For $n\geq 3$, define $T_n$ to be the theory of the generic $K_n$-free graph, where $K_n$ is the complete graph on $n$ vertices. We prove a graph theoretic characterization of dividing in $T_n$, and use it to show that forking and dividing are the same for complete types. We then give an example of a forking and nondividing formula. Altogether, $T_n$ provides a counterexample to a recent question of Chernikov and Kaplan.Comment: 11 page

A remark on strict independence relations

We prove that if $T$ is a complete theory with weak elimination of imaginaries, then there is an explicit bijection between strict independence relations for $T$ and strict independence relations for $T^{\text{eq}}$. We use this observation to show that if $T$ is the theory of the Fra\"{i}ss\'{e} limit of finite metric spaces with integer distances, then $T^{\text{eq}}$ has more than one strict independence relation. This answers a question of Adler [1, Question 1.7].Comment: 9 pages, to appear in Archive for Mathematical Logi

Chirality and the Conway polynomial

In recent work with J.Mostovoy and T.Stanford,the author found that for every natural number n, a certain polynomial in the coefficients of the Conway polynomial is a primitive integer-valued degree n Vassiliev invariant, but that modulo 2, it becomes degree n-1. The conjecture then naturally suggests itself that these primitive invariants are congruent to integer-valued degree n-1 invariants. In this note, the consequences of this conjecture are explored. Under an additional assumption, it is shown that this conjecture implies that the Conway polynomial of an amphicheiral knot has the property that C(z)C(iz)C(z^2) is a perfect square inside the ring of power series with integer coefficients, or, equivalently, the image of C(z)C(iz)C(z^2) is a perfect square inside the ring of polynomials with Z_4 coefficients. In fact, it is probably the case that the Conway polynomial of an amphicheiral knot always can be written as f(z)f(-z) for some polynomial f(z) with integer coefficients, and this actually implies the above "perfect squares" conditions. Indeed, by work of Kawauchi and Hartley, this is known for all negative amphicheiral knots and for all strongly positive amphicheiral knots. In general it remains unsolved, and this paper can be seen as some evidence that it is indeed true in general. [Added 2/22/12: Of note is the recent paper arXiv:1106.5634v1 [math.GT] by Ermotti, Hongler and Weber, which finds a counterexample to the conjecture that all Conway polynomials of amphicheiral knots are of the form f(z)f(-z). Intriguingly, their main example still satisfies C(z)C(iz)C(z^2)=f(z)^2 for a power series f(z), making the main conjecture of the present paper that much more compelling, in the author's opinion.]Comment: This now closely approximates the published versio

The Johnson Cokernel and the Enomoto-Satoh invariant

We study the cokernel of the Johnson homomorphism for the mapping class group of a surface with one boundary component. A graphical trace map simultaneously generalizing trace maps of Enomoto-Satoh and Conant-Kassabov-Vogtmann is given, and using technology from the author's work with Kassabov and Vogtmann, this is is shown to detect a large family of representations which vastly generalizes series due to Morita and Enomoto-Satoh. The Enomoto-Satoh trace is the rank 1 part of the new trace. The rank 2 part is also investigated.Comment: Added a reference to forthcoming work with Kassabo

Ornate necklaces and the homology of the genus one mapping class group

According to seminal work of Kontsevich, the unstable homology of the mapping class group of a surface can be computed via the homology of a certain lie algebra. In a recent paper, S. Morita analyzed the abelianization of this lie algebra, thereby constructing a series of candidates for unstable classes in the homology of the mapping class group. In the current paper, we show that these cycles are all nontrivial, representing degree 4k+1 homology classes in the homology of the mapping class group of a genus one surface with 4k+1 punctures

The Lie Lie algebra

We study the abelianization of Kontsevich's Lie algebra associated with the Lie operad and some related problems. Calculating the abelianization is a long-standing unsolved problem, which is important in at least two different contexts: constructing cohomology classes in $H^k(\mathrm{Out}(F_r);\mathbb Q)$ and related groups as well as studying the higher order Johnson homomorphism of surfaces with boundary. The abelianization carries a grading by "rank," with previous work of Morita and Conant-Kassabov-Vogtmann computing it up to rank $2$. This paper presents a partial computation of the rank $3$ part of the abelianization, finding lots of irreducible $\mathrm{SP}$-representations with multiplicities given by spaces of modular forms. Existing conjectures in the literature on the twisted homology of $\mathrm{SL}_3(\mathbb Z)$ imply that this gives a full account of the rank $3$ part of the abelianization in even degrees.Comment: Version 3 incorporates several suggestions from the referee. The abstract and introduction have been rewritten to be more user-friendly. To appear in Quantum Topolog