Dualization and deformations of the Bar-Natan-Russell skein module

This thesis studies the Bar-Natan skein module of the solid torus with a particular boundary curve system, and in particular a diagrammatic presentation of it due to Russell. This module has deep connections to topology and categorification: it is isomorphic to both the total homology of the (n,n)-Springer variety and the 0th Hochschild homology of the Khovanov arc ring Hn.;We can also view the Bar-Natan--Russell skein module from a representation-theoretic viewpoint as an extension of the Frenkel--Khovanov graphical description of the Lusztig dual canonical basis of the nth tensor power of the fundamental Uq(sl2)-representation. One of our primary results is to extend a dualization construction of Khovanov using Jones--Wenzl projectors from the Lusztig basis to the Russell basis.;We also construct and explore several deformations of the Russell skein module. One deformation is a quantum deformation that arises from embedding the Russell skein module in a space that obeys Kauffman--Lins diagrammatic relations. Our quantum version recovers the original Russell space when q is specialized to --1 and carries a natural braid group action that recovers the symmetric group action of Russell and Tymoczko. We also present an equivariant deformation that arises from replacing the TQFT algebra A used in the construction of the rings Hn by the equivariant homology of the two-sphere with the standard action of U(2) and taking the 0th Hochschild homology of the resulting deformed arc rings. We show that the equivariant deformation has the expected rank.;Finally, we consider the Khovanov two-functor F from the category of tangles. We show that it induces a surjection from the space of cobordisms of planar (2m, 2n)-tangles to the space of (Hm, Hn)-bimodule homomorphisms and give an explicit description of the kernel. We use our result to introduce a new quotient of the Russell skein module.