paper

Khovanov homology and refined bounds for Gordian distances

arXiv:2409.05743

Abstract

From Khovanov homology, we extract a new lower bound for the Gordian distance of knots, which combines and strengthens the previously existing bounds coming from Rasmussen invariants and from torsion invariants. We also improve the bounds for the proper rational Gordian distance.

42 pages, 14 figures, 2 tables. v2: corresponds to the version accepted for publication in Math. Res. Lett.; editorial changes only