Bordism invariants of colored links and topologically protected tricolorings

Abstract

We construct invariants of colored links using equivariant bordism groups of Conner and Floyd. We employ this bordism invariant to find the first examples of topological vortex knots, the knot structure of which is protected from decaying via topologically allowed local surgeries, i.e., by reconnections and strand crossings permitted by the topology of the vortex-supporting medium. Moreover, we show that, up to the aforementioned local surgeries, each tricolored link either decays into unlinked simple loops, or can be transformed into either a left-handed or a right-handed tricolored trefoil knot.