A colored operad for string link infection

Abstract

Budney constructed an operad that encodes splicing of knots and further showed that the space of (long) knots is generated over this splicing operad by the space of torus knots and hyperbolic knots. This generalized the satellite decomposition of knots from isotopy classes to the level of the space of knots. Infection by string links is a generalization of splicing from knots to links. We construct a colored operad that encodes string link infection. We prove that a certain subspace of the space of $2$–component string links is generated over a suboperad of our operad by its subspace of prime links. This generalizes a result from joint work with Blair from isotopy classes of string links to the space of string links. Furthermore, all the relations in the monoid of $2$–string links (as determined in our joint work with Blair) are captured by our infection operad.