Earrings, Sutures, and Pointed Links

We prove a rank inequality on the instanton knot homology and the Khovanov homology of a link in S-3. The key step of the proof is to construct a spectral sequence relating Baldwin-Levine-Sarkar's pointed Khovanov homology to a singular instanton invariant for pointed links.

Automated summary

We established a rank inequality between the instanton knot homology and Khovanov homology, and constructed a spectral sequence to relate the two.