On skew tau-functions in higher spin theory

Recent studies of higher spin theory in three dimensions concentrate on Wilson loops in Chern-Simons theory, which in the classical limit reduce to peculiar corner matrix elements between the highest and lowest weight states in a given representation of SL(N). Despite these "skew" tau-functions can seem very different from conventional ones, which are the matrix elements between the two highest weight states, they also satisfy the Toda recursion between different fundamental representations. Moreover, in the most popular examples they possess simple representations in terms of matrix models and Schur functions. We provide a brief introduction to this new interesting field, which, after quantization, can serve as an additional bridge between knot and integrability theories.Comment: 36 page

Knot invariants from Virasoro related representation and pretzel knots

We remind the method to calculate colored Jones polynomials for the plat representations of knot diagrams from the knowledge of modular transformation (monodromies) of Virasoro conformal blocks with insertions of degenerate fields. As an illustration we use a rich family of pretzel knots, lying on a surface of arbitrary genus g, which was recently analyzed by the evolution method. Further generalizations can be to generic Virasoro modular transformations, provided by integral kernels, which can lead to the Hikami invariants.Comment: 29 page