Algebraic structures of Vassiliev invariants for knot families

Abstract

We explore algebraic relations on Vassiliev knot invariants related with correlators in the 3-dimensional Chern--Simons theory. Vassiliev invariants form infinite-dimensional algebra. We focus on $k$-parametric knot families with Vassiliev invariants being polynomials in family parameters. We conjecture that such 1-parametric algebra of Vassiliev invariants is always finitely generated, while in the case of more parameters, we provide example of the knot family with infinite number of generators. Inside a knot family, there appear extra algebraic relations on Vassiliev invariants. We show that there are $\leq k$ algebraically independent Vassiliev invariants for $k$-parametric knot family. However, in all our examples, the number of algebraically independent Vassiliev invariants is exactly $k$, and it is open question if there exists a $k$-parametric knot family with a fewer number of algebraically independent Vassiliev invariants. We also demonstrate that a complete knot invariant of some $k$-parametric knot families consists of $k$ Vassiliev invariants.