Triangular decomposition of $SL_3$ skein algebras

Abstract

We give an $SL_3$ analogue of the triangular decomposition of the Kauffman bracket stated skein algebras described by Le. To any punctured bordered surface, we associate an $SL_3$ stated skein algebra which contains the $SL_3$ skein algebra of closed webs. These algebras admit natural algebra morphisms associated to the splitting of surfaces along ideal arcs. We give an explicit basis for the $SL_3$ stated skein algebra and show that the splitting morphisms are injective and describe their images. By splitting a surface along the edges of an ideal triangulation, we see that the $SL_3$ stated skein algebra of any ideal triangulable surface embeds into a tensor product of stated skein algebras of triangles.