Link-homotopy classes of 4-component links and claspers

Abstract

Two links are link-homotopic if they are transformed into each other by a sequence of self-crossing changes and ambient isotopies. The link-homotopy classes of 4-component links were classified by Levine with enormous algebraic computations. We modify the results by using Habiro's clasper theory. The new classification gives more symmetrical and schematic points of view to the link-homotopy classes of 4-component links. As applications, we give several new subsets of the link-homotopy classes of 4-component links which are classified by comparable invariants and give an algorithm which determines whether given two links are link-homotopic or not.