The Matiyasevi

h polynomial, four olour

theorem and weight systems

Sergei Duzhin
Started on 00.01.06. This version 00.01.06

Abstra t
We show that a modi ation of the polynomial introdu ed by
Yu. Matiyasevi h for sphere triangulations, an be dened to be an
invariant of 3-graphs and thus provide a weight system for nite type
knot invariants. The relation of this onstru tion with the four- olour
theorem is also dis ussed.
1

Weight systems

Weight systems are ru ial in the ombinatorial study of nite type (Vassiliev) knot invariants. They are dened as fun tions on the spa es generated
by graphs with all verti es of valen y 1 or 3, satisfying ertain relations. For
the sake of this exposition, I will give a pre ise denition of a weight system
on the spa e of 3-graphs (see [CDK). Relation of the spa e of 3-graphs to
other spa es of diagrams is laried in [CDK.

Denition 1 A 3-graph is a regular 3-valent graph1 with a xed rotation.

The rotation is the hoi e of a y li order of edges at every vertex, i. e.
one of the two y li permutations in the set of three edges adja ent to this
vertex.
1 Note

that the number of verti es of su h a graph is always even, and the number of

edges a multiple of 3.

Half the number of the verti es is referred to as the

3-graph.

degree

of a

Denition 2 The spa e n is the quotient spa e of the linear spa e over Q
generated by onne ted 3-graphs of degree n (i. e. having 2n verti es), modulo
the following relations.
AS (antisymmetry) relation:

i
Z
 ZZ

IHX relation:

PPP
q

PPP
q

B
B



Z
 ZZ
q



B
B


q


q

Denition 3 A weight system of degree n is a fun tion on the spa e n with

values in some Abelian group. In other words, a weight system is a fun tion
of a 3-graph whi h satises the AS and IHX relations.
A well known onstru tion of weight systems is Kontsevi h's onstru tion
of the invariant with values in the universal enveloping algebra of a Lie algebra equipped with a xed ad-invariant non-degenerate symmetri bilinear
form (see [Kon for the original onstru tion, [BN1 for the spe ialization to
linear representations and [CDK for the ase of the algebra ). In this onstru tion, one asso iates a opy of the stru ture tensor of the Lie algebra g
to every vertex and then makes the ontra tion over all edges. The stru ture
tensor, moved into the spa e g
g
g by means of the metri , is a totally
antisymmetri element of this spa e, whi h ensures the ompatibility with
the AS relation. The IHX relation follows from the Ja obi identity.
2

Matiyasevi h's polynomial

Let  : V (G) ! f1; 2; : : : ; 3ng be a numbering of the set of edges of the

graph G. We assign an independent variable xi , i = 1; : : : ; 3n, to the edge
number i and, with every vertex v 2 V (G), we asso iate the polynomial
(v1

v2 )(v2

v3 )(v3

v 1 );

(1)

if v1 , v2 , v3 are the variables assigned to the three edges meeting at v , taken

in the order onsistent with the rotation at v . Set
M (G) =
(v1 v2 )(v2 v3 )(v3 v1 ):

v V (G)

This is the numbered Matiyasevi h's polynomial. To obtain an invariant

obje t, symmetrize M (G) over all numberings , or over all permutations
of x1 , ..., x3n :
1
M(G) =
( (v1 )  (v2 ))( (v2 )  (v3 ))( (v3 )  (v1 )):
(3n)! 2Perm(3n) v2V (G)

X Y

Theorem 1 The Matiyasevi h's polynomial M : n ! S Q [x1 ; : : : ; x3n is a

weight system on the spa e n with values in the spa e of symmetri polynomials in 3n variables.
Proof. The AS relation, as well as the orre tness of the denition of M,
follow from the fa t that expression (1) is totally antisymmetri with respe t
to the permutations of v1 , v2 and v3 . The IHX relation is a onsequen e of
the following remarkable polynomial identity:
(a b)( d) + (b )(a d) + ( a)(b d) = 0:
(2)
Relation with the so(3) weight system. In general, a weight system for
3-graphs an be onstru ted from any obje t whi h is skew- ommutative
in 3 variables. Both in the ase of so(3) and in the ase of Matiyasevi h,
we assign a ertain element of R 3
R 3
R 3 to every vertex of the graph,
and this element is totally antisymmetri with respe t to some a tion of the
permutation group on 3 symbols. But the group a tions in question are
dierent:
 In the so(3) ase, the spa e R 3 is identied with so(3) and the group
Perm(3) a ts in
R3
R3
R3
by permutations of the three fa tors of the tensor produ t.

In Matiyasevi h's ase, R 3 is the linear span of the formal variables v1 ,

v2 , v3 , while the group Perm(3) a ts in
R3
R3
R3
by the same permutaion of the bases in ea h of the three fa tors.
3

Remark. Polynomial identity 2 is the analogue of Ja obi identity in

some sense whi h still needs to be understood.
3

Four olour theorem

Denition 4 An edge 3- olouring of a three-valent graph is a olouring of

the set of its edges with three olours, su h that the three edges meeting at
any vertex have dierent olours.

X Y

Denition 5 The number of olourings of a 3-graph G is dened as

(G)

edge
3- olourings of

v V

v ;

where v is 1 or 1, depending on whether the order of the three olours

meeting at v agrees with the rotation at v .

The famous four olour theorem is equivalent to the assertion that (G) 6=
0 for any planar 3-graph G. As explained in [BN2 and [CDK, the number
(G) is equal to the value of the so(3) weight system on G.
To explain the relation of the Matiyasevi h's polynomial to the four olour
theorem, we introdu e the redu ed Matiyasevi h's polynomial RM(G) as follows:
RM(G) = M(G)jx3 7!1 ;
i

In other words, RM(G) is obtained from M(G) by redu ing all the exponents
modulo 3.

Theorem 2 The onstant term of the redu ed Matiyasevi h polynomial is

equal to the number of edge olourings of the 3-graph:
RM(G)jx =0 = (G):
i

Proof. We will prove that the onstant term of every numbered redu ed Matiyasevi h's polynomial (before symmetrization) is equal to (G).
Indeed, for any edge numbering , the polynomial M (G) is the produ t of
polynomials
2
2
2
2
2
2
v1 v2 + v2 v3 + v3 v1
v2 v1
v3 v2
v1 v3 :

The hoi e of a term in every su h polynomial is equivalent to a olouring

of the set of half-edges of the given graph by three olours: 0, 1 and 2. For
example, the term v12 v2 means putting a 2 on the half-edge orresponding
to v1 , a 1 on the half-edge orresponding to v2 and a 0 on the half-edge
orresponding to v3 . Contributions to the onstant term of M (G) arise from
su h olourings where the two ends of every edge either have olours f0; 0g
or olours f1; 2g. We laim that the algebrai number of su h olourings is
equal to the algebrai number of onventional edge 3- olourings, where both
endpoints of every edge have the same olour. Indeed, take an half-edge 3 olouring and delete all edges of olour 0. What remains is the disjoint union
of several y les. If all the y les are of even length, then, for ea h of them,
there are exa tly two edge olourings and exa tly two half-edge olourings,
and all the signs agree. If there is at least one y le of odd length, then
there is no edge olouring, while the half-edge olourings appear in mutually
an elling pairs.
4

Open problems

1. Is the polynomial M independent of lassi al Lie algebra weight systems?

2. Is it possible to dete t knot inversion by polynomial M? In other words,
is there a Chinese hara ter (in the sense of [BN1) with an odd number
of univalent verti es whose M-polynomial is dierent from zero?
3. The polynomial M is related to Lie algebra so(3) in the sense des ribed
above. Are there any generalizations of M for other Lie algebras?
5

A knowledgments

I thank S. Chmutov for permanent fruitful dis ussions and S. Me hveliani for
his help in omputations using omputer algebra system DoCon2 ([DoC). I
am also indebted to T. Kohno for en ouraging me to prepare this paper for
the \Art of Low Dimensional Topology VI", Kyoto, January 2000.

Referen es

[BN1 D. Bar-Natan, On the Vassiliev knot invariants. Topology, 34 (1995)

423{472. http://www.ma.huji.a .il/~drorbn/LOP.html
[BN2 D. Bar-Natan, Lie algebras and the four olor theorem. Combinatori a
17-1 (1997) 43-52. http://www.ma.huji.a .il/~drorbn/LOP.html
[CDK S. Chmutov, S. Duzhin, A. Kaishev, The algebra of 3-graphs.
Trans. Steklov Math. Institute, vol. 221 (1998), pp.168{196.
http://ftp.botik.ru/pub/lo al/zmr/duzh-pap.html

[Kon M. Kontsevi h, Vassiliev's knot invariants, Adv. in Soviet Math., 16

Part 2 (1993) 137{150.
[YuM Yu. Matiyasevi h, A Polynomial related to Colourings of Triangulation of Sphere. Personal Journal of Yu. Matiyasevi h.
http://logi .pdmi.ras.ru/~yumat/Journal/journal.htm

[DoC S. Me hveliani, The Algebrai Domain Constru tor DoCon,

version 2. Software and manual. Pereslavl-Zalessky, 1999.
http://http.botik.ru/pub/~me hvel

e-mail duzhinbotik.ru
WWW http://www.botik.ru/~duzhin
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