Quantum invariants of knotoids

Abstract

In this paper, we construct quantum invariants for knotoid diagrams in $\mathbb{R}^2$. The diagrams are arranged with respect to a given direction in the plane ({\it Morse knotoids}). A Morse knotoid diagram can be decomposed into basic elementary diagrams each of which is associated to a matrix that yields solutions of the quantum Yang-Baxter equation. We recover the bracket polynomial, and define the rotational bracket polynomial, the binary bracket polynomial, the Alexander polynomial, the generalized Alexander polynomial and an infinity of specializations of the Homflypt polynomial for Morse knotoids via quantum state sum models.