Relations between the string topology of Chas and Sullivan and the homotopy
skein modules of Hoste and Przytycki are studied. This provides new insight
into the structure of homotopy skein modules and their meaning in the framework
of quantum topology. Our results can be considered as weak extensions to all
orientable 3-manifolds of classical results by Turaev and Goldman concerning
intersection and skein theory on oriented surfaces.Comment: Published by Algebraic and Geometric Topology at
http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/agt/AGTVol3/agt-3-34.abs.htm