In a previous paper, the authors defined a family of string link invariants
using the HOMFLYPT polynomial and various closure operations on (cabled) string
links. We give a formula expressing Milnor invariants of string links as a
linear combination of such invariants. We also use these invariants to
investigate the classification of string links up to C_n-moves.
Link-homotopy and self Delta-equivalence are equivalence relations on links.
It was shown by J. Milnor (resp. the last author) that Milnor invariants
determine whether or not a link is link-homotopic (resp. self Delta-equivalent)
to a trivial link. We study link-homotopy and self Delta-equivalence on a
certain component of a link with fixing the rest components, in other words,
homotopy and Delta-equivalence of knots in the complement of a certain link.