The theory of knot invariants of finite type (Vassiliev invariants) is described. These invariants turn out to be at least as powerful as the Jones polynomial and its numerous generalizations coming from various quantum groups, and it is conjectured that these invariants are precisely as powerful as those polynomials. As invariants of finite type are much easier to define and manipulate than the quantum group invariants, it is likely that in attempting to classify knots, invariants of finite type will play a more fundamental role than the various knot polynomials.

We give a fresh introduction to the Khovanov Homology theory for knots and links, with special emphasis on its extension to tangles, cobordisms and 2-knots. By staying within a world of topological pictures a little longer than in other articles on the subject, the required extension becomes essentially tautological. And then a simple application of an appropriate functor (a "TQFT") to our pictures takes them to the familiar realm of complexes of (graded) vector spaces and ordinary homological invariants.

The working mathematician fears complicated words but loves pictures and diagrams. We thus give a no-fancy-anything picture rich glimpse into Khovanov's novel construction of "the categorification of the Jones polynomial". For the same low cost we also provide some computations, including one that shows that Khovanov's invariant is strictly stronger than the Jones polynomial and including a table of the values of Khovanov's invariant for all prime knots with up to 11 crossings.

We introduce a local algorithm for Khovanov homology computations — that is, we explain how it is possible to "cancel" terms in the Khovanov complex associated with a ("local") tangle, hence canceling the many associated "global" terms in one swoosh early on. This leads to a dramatic improvement in computational efficiency. Thus our program can rapidly compute certain Khovanov homology groups that otherwise would have taken centuries to evaluate.

Abstract. We investigate Vassiliev homotopy invariants of string links, and find that in this particular case, most of the questions left unanswered in [3] can be answered affirmatively. In particular, Vassiliev invariants classify string links up to homotopy, and all Vassiliev homotopy string link invariants come from marked surfaces as in [3], using the same construction that in the case of knots gives the HOMFLY and Kauffman polynomials. Alongside, the Milnor µ invariants of string links are shown to be Vassiliev invariants, and it is re-proven, by elementary means, that Vassiliev invariants classify braids.