Partial duality and Bollobas and Riordan's ribbon graph polynomial

Abstract

Recently S. Chmutov introduced a generalization of the dual of a ribbon (or embedded) graph and proved a relation between Bollobas and Riordan's ribbon graph polynomial of a ribbon graph and its generalized duals. Here I show that the duality relation satisfied by the ribbon graph polynomial can be understood in terms of knot theory and I give a simple proof of the relation via the homfly polynomial of a knot.