Detecting causality with symplectic quandles

Abstract

We investigate the capability of symplectic quandles to detect causality for (2+1)-dimensional globally hyperbolic spacetimes (X). Allen and Swenberg showed that the Alexander–Conway polynomial is insufficient to distinguish connected sum of two Hopf links from the links in the family of Allen–Swenberg 2-sky like links, suggesting that it cannot always detect causality in X. We find that symplectic quandles, combined with Alexander–Conway polynomial, can distinguish these two types of links, thereby suggesting their ability to detect causality in X. The fact that symplectic quandles can capture causality in the Allen–Swenberg example is intriguing since the theorem of Chernov and Nemirovski, which states that Legendrian linking equals causality, is proved using Contact Geometry methods.