Surgery on a single clasper and the 2-loop part of the Kontsevich integral

Abstract

We study the 2-loop part of the rational Kontsevich integral of a knot in an integer homology sphere. We give a general formula which explains how the 2-loop part of the Kontsevich integral of a knot changes after surgery on a single clasper whose leaves are not linked to the knot. As an application, we relate this formula with a conjecture of L. Rozansky about integrality of the 2-loop polynomial of a knot.