An operator invariant for handlebody-knots
A handlebody-knot is a handlebody embedded in the 3-sphere. We improve Luo's result about markings on a surface, and show that an IH-move is sufficient to investigate handlebody-knots with spatial trivalent graphs without cut-edges. We also give fundamental moves with a height function for handlebody-tangles, which helps us to define operator invariants for handlebody-knots. By using the fundamental moves, we give an operator invariant.