Homfly polynomials of generalized Hopf links

Following the recent work by T.-H. Chan in (3) on reverse string parallels of the Hopf link we give an alternative approach to nding the Homfly polynomials of these links, based on the Homfly skein of the an- nulus. We establish that two natural skein maps have distinct eigenvalues, answering a question raised by Chan, and use this result to calculate the Homfly polynomial of some more general reverse string satellites of the Hopf link. AMS Classication 57M25