Skein relations for Milnor's mu-invariants
Abstract
The theory of link-homotopy, introduced by Milnor, is an important part of the knot theory, with Milnor's mu-bar-invariants being the basic set of link-homotopy invariants. Skein relations for knot and link invariants played a crucial role in the recent developments of knot theory. However, while skein relations for Alexander and Jones invariants are known for quite a while, a similar treatment of Milnor's mu-bar-invariants was missing. We fill this gap by deducing simple skein relations for link-homotopy mu-invariants of string links.
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