Quantum Link Homology via Trace Functor I

Abstract: Motivated by topology, we develop a general theory of traces and shadows for an endobicategory, which is a~pair: bicategory $\mathbf{C}$ and endobifunctor $\Sigma\colon \mathbf C \to\mathbf C$. For a graded linear bicategory and a fixed invertible parameter $q$, we quantize this theory by using the endofunctor $\Sigma_q$ such that $\Sigma_q \alpha:=q^{-\deg \alpha}\Sigma\alpha$ for any 2-morphism $\alpha$ and coincides with $\Sigma$ otherwise. Applying the quantized trace to the~bicategory of Chen-Khovanov bimodules we get a new triply graded link homology theory called quantum annular link homology. If $q=1$ we reproduce Asaeda-Przytycki-Sikora (APS) homology for links in a thickened annulus. We prove that our homology carries an action of $\mathcal U_q(\mathfrak{sl}_2)$, which intertwines the action of cobordisms. In particular, the~quantum annular homology of an $n$-cable admits an action of the braid group, which commutes with the quantum group action and factors through the Jones skein relation. This produces a nontrivial invariant for surfaces knotted in four dimensions. Moreover, a direct computation for torus links shows that the rank of quantum annular homology groups does depend on the quantum parameter $q$.