Extended quandle spaces and shadow homotopy invariants of classical links

Abstract

In 1993, Fenn, Rourke and Sanderson introduced rack spaces and rack homotopy invariants, and modifications to quandle spaces and quandle homotopy invariants were introduced by Nosaka in 2011. In this paper, we define the Cayley-type graph and the extended quandle space of a quandle in analogy to rack and quandle spaces. Moreover, we construct the shadow homotopy invariant of a classical link and prove that the shadow homotopy invariant is equal to the quandle homotopy invariant multiplied by the order of a quandle.