In this paper, we describe a canopolis (ie categorified planar algebra) formalism for Khovanov and Rozansky's link homology theory. We show how this allows us to organize simplifications in the matrix factorizations appearing in their theory. In particular, it will put the equivalence of the original definition of Khovanov-Rozansky homology and the definition using Soergel bimodules in a more general context, allow us to give a new proof of the invariance of triply graded homology and give a new analysis of the behavior of triply graded homology under the Reidemeister IIb move.
57M27; 13D02In [9; 10], Khovanov and Rozansky introduced a series of homology theories for links. These theories categorify the quantum invariants for sl n , and the HOMFLYPT polynomial. Unfortunately, they remain very difficult to calculate, not least because of the complicated matrix factorizations used in their original combinatorial definition. Later work of I Frenkel, Khovanov and Stroppel [6;8;14;15] has suggested a more systematic definition of these invariants and a connection between these theories and the structure of the BGG category O for the Lie algebra gl n , but progress toward computational simplifications along these lines has been slow.In this paper, we will show that these invariants can be understood, computed and in fact, defined in the context of canopolises. We hope that this approach will both lead to computational benefits and help the reader to understand the definition of KhovanovRozansky homology better. A canopolis 1 is a categorification of the notion of a planar algebra defined by Bar-Natan [2] (see Section 2).Consider a disk in the plane with m disks removed from its interior (we call the places left by these removed disks "holes"). An oriented planar arc diagram (or "spaghettiand-meatballs diagram") Á on this disk is a collection of oriented simple curves with endpoints on the boundary of the disk (including the boundary of the holes), along with choice of a distinguished point on each boundary of a component (in diagrams, this point is distinguished by putting a star next to it), and an ordering of the holes of the diagram.1 Bar-Natan uses the term "canopoly" in the published version of [2], but the consensus choice now seems to be the more etymologically correct "canopolis." Let Q i .Á/ be the set of planar arc diagrams ! such that the outer boundary of ! matches the boundary of the i -th hole of Á. That is, there is the same number of endpoints, and if we order the endpoints, starting at our distinguished point, the orientations of the arcs match.Any fixed planar arc diagram Á with a distinguished hole defines an operationby shrinking the given m-tuple of diagrams, and pasting it into the holes of Á, as is shown in Figure 1. This "multiplication" is a particular instance of an algebraic structure called an colored operad.The operad of planar arc diagrams acts on tangle diagrams in a disk as well. Phrased in the language of [2], the set of tangle diagrams T S; in a disk, with endpoints on the boundary an...