Nimble evolution for pretzel Khovanov polynomials

Abstract

We conjecture explicit evolution formulas for Khovanov polynomials for pretzel knots in some regions in the windings space. Our description is exhaustive for genera 1 and 2. As previously observed, evolution at T != -1 is not fully smooth: it switches abruptly at the boundaries between different regions. We reveal that this happens also at the boundary between thin and thick knots, moreover, the thick-knot domain is further stratified. For thin knots evolution is governed by the standard T-deformation lambda of the eigenvalues of the R-matrix. Emerging in the thick knots regions are additional Lyapunov exponents, which are multiples of the naive ones. Such frequency doubling is typical for non-linear dynamics, and our observation can signal about a hidden non-linearity of superpolynomial evolution. Since evolution with eigenvalues lambda^2, ..., lambda^g is "faster" than the one with lambda in the thin-knot region, we name it "nimble.