Introduction to Vassiliev Knot Invariants (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781107020832)

With hundreds of worked examples, exercises and illustrations, this detailed exposition of the theory of Vassiliev knot invariants opens the field to students with little or no knowledge in this area. It also serves as a guide to more advanced material. The book begins with a basic and informal introduction to knot theory, giving many examples of knot invariants before the class of Vassiliev invariants is introduced. This is followed by a detailed study of the algebras of Jacobi diagrams and 3-graphs, and the construction of functions on these algebras via Lie algebras. The authors then describe two constructions of a universal invariant with values in the algebra of Jacobi diagrams: via iterated integrals and via the Drinfeld associator, and extend the theory to framed knots. Various other topics are then discussed, such as Gauss diagram formulae, before the book ends with Vassiliev's original construction.

Author: S. Chmutov, S. Duzhin, J. Mostovoy
ISBN-10: 1107020832
ISBN-13: 9781107020832
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 05/24/2012
Pages: 520
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 2.40lbs
Size: 9.80h x 6.90w x 1.30d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 02/01/2013