Knot invariants from Laplacian matrices

Abstract

A checkerboard graph of a special diagram of an oriented link is made a directed, edge-weighted graph in a natural way so that a principal submatrix of its Laplacian matrix is a Seifert matrix of the link. Doubling and weighting the edges of the graph produces a second Laplacian matrix such that a principal submatrix is an Alexander matrix of the link. The Goeritz matrix and signature invariants are obtained in a similar way. A device introduced by Kauffman makes it possible to apply the method to general diagrams.