A Steenrod square on Khovanov homology

Abstract

In a previous paper, we defined a space-level version X(L) of Khovanov homology. This induces an action of the Steenrod algebra on Khovanov homology. In this paper, we describe the first interesting operation, Sq^2:Kh^{i,j}(L) -> Kh^{i+2,j}(L). We compute this operation for all links up to 11 crossings; this, in turn, determines the stable homotopy type of X(L) for all such links.