Generalized Quandle Polynomials and Their Applications to Stuquandles, Stuck Links, and RNA Folding

Abstract

We introduce a generalization of the quandle polynomial. We prove that our polynomial is an invariant of stuquandles. Furthermore, we use the invariant of stuquandles to define a polynomial invariant of stuck links. As a byproduct, we obtain a polynomial invariant of RNA foldings. Lastly, we provide explicit computations of our polynomial invariant for both stuck links and RNA foldings.