Khovanov homology and star-like isotopies

Abstract

A star-like isotopy for oriented links in 3-space is an isotopy which uses only Reidemeister II moves with opposite orientations and Reidemeister III moves with alternating orientations when checking the strands clockwise (or anticlockwise). We define a link polynomial derived from the Jones polynomial which is, in general, only invariant under star-like isotopies and we categorify it.