Jones rational coincidences

Abstract

We investigate coincidences of the (one-variable) Jones polynomial amongst rational knots, what we call “Jones rational coincidences”. We provide moves on the continued fraction expansion of the associated rational which we prove do not change the Jones polynomial and conjecture (based on experimental evidence from all rational knots with determinant [Formula: see text]) that these moves are sufficient to generate all Jones rational coincidences. In the process we give a new formula for the Jones polynomial of a rational knot based on a continued fraction expansion of the associated rational, which has significantly fewer terms than other formulae known to us. The paper is based on the second author’s Ph.D. thesis and gives an essentially self-contained account.