We develop a diagrammatic formalism for calculating the Alexander polynomial of the closure of a braid as a state-sum. Our main tools are the Markov trace formulas for the HOMFLY-PT polynomial and Young's semi-normal representations of the Iwahori-Hecke algebras of type A.
We prove a Torres-like formula for the $L^2$-Alexander torsions of links, as well as formulas for connected sums and cablings of links. Along the way we compute explicitly the $L^2$-Alexander torsions of torus links inside the three-sphere, the solid torus and the thickened torus.
We show that there exists a $\mathbb{Z}^\infty$-summand in the subgroup of the knot concordance group generated by knots with trivial Alexander polynomial. To this end we use the invariant Upsilon $Υ$ recently introduced by Ozsváth, Stipsicz and Szabó using knot Floer homology. We partially compute $Υ$ of $(n,1)$-cable of the Whitehead double of the trefoil knot. For this computation of $Υ$, we determine a sufficient condition for two satellite knots to have identical $Υ$ for any pattern with nonzero winding number.
A formula for the Alexander polynomial of a 2-bridge knot or link given by Hartley and also by Minkus has a beautiful interpretation as a walk on the integers. We extend this to the 2-variable Alexander polynomial of a 2-bridge link, obtaining a formula that corresponds to a walk on the 2-dimensional integer lattice.
In a recent paper, Allen and Swenberg investigated which link polynomials are capable of detecting causality in (2+1)-dimensional globally hyperbolic spacetimes. They ultimately suggested it is likely that the Jones Polynomial accomplishes this, while the Alexander-Conway polynomial, independently, is insufficient. As the Alexander-Conway polynomial on its own is not likely to detect causality an additional piece of information must be supplemented to the link polynomial. This paper aims to examine the ability of Alexander quandles, to distinguish the connected sum of two Hopf links and Allen-…
We develop a diagrammatic calculus for representations of unrolled quantum $\mathfrak{sl}_2$ at a fourth root of unity. This allows us to prove Seifert-Torres type formulas for certain splice links using quantum algebraic methods, rather than topological methods. Other applications of this diagrammatic calculus given here are a skein relation for $n$-cabled double crossings and a simple proof that the quantum invariant associated with these representations determines the multivariable Alexander polynomial.
In recent years, twisted Alexander polynomial has been playing an important role in low-dimensional topology. For Montesinos links, we develop an efficient method to compute the twisted Alexander polynomial associated to any linear representation. In particular, formulas for multi-variable Alexander polynomials of these links can be easily derived.
Twisted Alexander polynomials of a knot for group extensions
Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Kyoto University(京都大学数学科学研究所);Department of Mathematics, Hiyoshi Campus, Keio University(庆应义塾大学日吉校区数学系);Department of Frontier Media Science, Meiji University(明治大学前沿媒体科学系)
In this paper we give an explicit formula for the twisted Alexander polynomial of any torus link and show that it is a locally constant function on the $SL(2, \mathbb C)$-character variety. We also discuss similar things for the higher dimensional twisted Alexander polynomial and the Reidemeister torsion.
We formulate and prove a profinite rigidity theorem for the twisted Alexander polynomials up to several types of finite ambiguity. We also establish torsion growth formulas of the twisted homology groups in a $\mathbb{Z}$-cover of a 3-manifold with use of Mahler measures. We examine several examples associated to Riley's parabolic representations of two-bridge knot groups and give a remark on hyperbolic volumes.
We give an explicit formula of the Alexander polynomial of the link obtained by adding an arbitrary number of full twists to positively oriented parallel n-strands in terms of the Alexander polynomials of the links obtained by adding 0,1,...,n-1 full twists. From this, we see that the Alexander polynomials stabilize after adding sufficiently many full twists. The main tool used in the computation is expressing the Alexander polynomial using the vector space representation of $U_{q}(gl(1|1))$.
The Bott-Cattaneo-Rossi invariant $(Z_k)_{k\in \mathbb N\setminus\{0,1\}}$ is an invariant of long knots $\mathbb R^n\hookrightarrow\mathbb R^{n+2}$ for odd $n$, which reads as a combination of integrals over configuration spaces. In this article, we compute such integrals and prove explicit formulas for (generalized) $Z_k$ in terms of Alexander polynomials, or in terms of linking numbers of some cycles of a hypersurface bounded by the knot. Our formulas, which hold for all null-homologous long knots in homology $\mathbb R^{n+2}$ at least when $n\equiv 1\mod 4$, conversely express the Reidemei…
A {\em balanced} spatial graph has an integer weight on each edge, so that the directed sum of the weights at each vertex is zero. We describe the Alexander module and polynomial for balanced spatial graphs (originally due to Kinoshita \cite{ki}), and examine their behavior under some common operations on the graph. We use the Alexander module to define the determinant and $p$-colorings of a balanced spatial graph, and provide examples. We show that the determinant of a spatial graph determines for which $p$ the graph is $p$-colorable, and that a $p$-coloring of a graph corresponds to a repres…
We establish a relationship between the Jones polynomial of generalized weaving knots of type $W(3,n,m)$ and the Chebyshev polynomial of the first kind. Consequently, we prove that the coefficients of the Jones polynomial of weaving knots are basically the Whitney numbers of Lucas lattices. Furthermore, we give an explicit formula for the Alexander polynomial of weaving knots $W(3,n)$ and we prove that it satisfies Fox's trapezoidal conjecture.
Ozsváth-Szabó proved the property that any coefficient of Alexander polynomial of lens space knot is either $\pm1$ or $0$ and the non-zero coefficients are alternating. Combining the formulas of the Alexander polynomial of lens space knots due to Kadokami-Yamada and Ichihara-Saito-Teragaito, we refine Ozsváth-Szabó's property as the existence of simple curves included in a region in ${\Bbb R}^2$. The existence of curves, that has no end-points connected, is just 1-component in a region, can search distribution of non-zero coefficients of the Alexander polynomial of the lens space knot. This cu…
This is a sequel to [arXiv:1708.09092v2]. For an oriented trivalent graph $G$ without source or sink embedded in $S^3$, we prove that the $\mathfrak{gl}(1| 1)$-Alexander polynomial $\underlineΔ(G, c)$ defined by Viro satisfies a series of relations, which we call MOY-type relations in [arXiv:1708.09092v2]. As a corollary we show that the Alexander polynomial $Δ_{(G, c)}(t)$ studied in [arXiv:1708.09092v2] coincides with $\underlineΔ(G, c)$ for a positive coloring $c$ of $G$, where $Δ_{(G, c)}(t)$ is constructed from certain regular covering space of the complement of $G$ in $S^3$ and it is the…