Matrix factorizations and link homology

Abstract

For each positive integer n the HOMFLY polynomial of links specializes to a one-variable polynomial that can be recovered from the representation theory of quantum sl(n). For each such n we build a doubly-graded homology theory of links with this polynomial as the Euler characteristic. The core of our construction utilizes the theory of matrix factorizations, which provide a linear algebra description of maximal Cohen-Macaulay modules on isolated hypersurface singularities.