A Geometric Interpretation of Milnor's Triple Invariants

Blake Mellor, Paul Melvin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Milnor's triple linking numbers of a link in the 3-sphere are interpreted geometrically in terms of the pattern of intersections of the Seifert surfaces of the components of the link. This generalizes the well known formula as an algebraic count of triple points when the pairwise linking numbers vanish.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)557-568
Number of pages12
JournalAlgebraic Geometric Topology
Volume3
Issue number1
StatePublished - 2003

Keywords

  • invariants
  • Seifert surfaces
  • link homotopy
  • (mu)over-bar-invariants

Disciplines

  • Geometry and Topology

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