Every element in the first cohomology group of a 3--manifold is dual to embedded surfaces. The Thurston norm measures the minimal `complexity' of such surfaces. For instance the Thurston norm of a knot complement determines the genus of the knot in the 3--sphere. We show that the degrees of twisted Alexander polynomials give lower bounds on the Thurston norm, generalizing work of McMullen and Turaev. Our bounds attain their most concise form when interpreted as the degrees of the Reidemeister torsion of a certain twisted chain complex. We show that these lower bounds give the correct genus bounds for all knots with 12 crossings or less, including the Conway knot and the Kinoshita--Terasaka knot which have trivial Alexander polynomial.
Using recent results of Agol, Przytycki-Wise and Wise we show that twisted Alexander polynomials detect the Thurston norm of any irreducible 3-manifold which is not a closed graph manifold.
We prove that the twisted Reidemeister torsion of a 3-manifold corresponding to a fibered class is monic and we show that it gives lower bounds on the Thurston norm. The former fixes a flawed proof in [FV10], the latter gives a quick alternative argument for the main theorem of [FK06].
We introduce twisted Alexander norms of a compact connected orientable 3-manifold with first Betti number bigger than one generalizing norms of McMullen and Turaev. We show that twisted Alexander norms give lower bounds on the Thurston norm of a 3-manifold. Using these we completely determine the Thurston norm of many 3-manifolds which can not be determined by norms of McMullen and Turaev.
We determine the Thurston unit ball of a family of $n$-chained link, denoted by $C(n,p)$, where $n$ is the number of link components and $p$ is the number of twists. When $p$ is strictly positive, we prove that the Thurston unit ball for $C(n,p)$ is an $n$-dimensional cocube, for arbitrary $n$. Moreover, we clarify the condition for which $C(n,p)$ is fibered and find at least one fibered face for any $p$. Finally we provide the Teichmüller polynomial for the face of Thurston unit ball of $C(n, -2)$ with $n\geq 3$.
In a series of papers the authors proved that twisted Alexander polynomials detect fibered 3-manifolds, and they showed that this implies that a closed 3-manifold N is fibered if and only if S^1 x N is symplectic. In this note we summarize some of the key ideas of the proofs. We also give new evidence to the conjecture that if $ is a symplectic 4-manifold with a free S^1-action, then the orbit space is fibered.
For a 3-manifold M, McMullen derived from the Alexander polynomial of M a norm on H^1(M, R) called the Alexander norm. He showed that the Thurston norm on H^1(M, R), which measures the complexity of a dual surface, is an upper bound for the Alexander norm. He asked if these two norms were equal on all of H^1(M,R) when M fibers over the circle. Here, I give examples which show that the answer to this question is emphatically no. This question is related to the faithfulness of the Gassner representations of the braid groups. The key tool used to understand this question is the Bieri-Neumann-Stre…
In this paper we use twisted Alexander polynomials to prove that the exterior of a particular graph knot is not fibered. Then we build three 2-component graph links out of this knot, and use similar techniques to discuss their fiberedness.
As a generalization of a classical result on the Alexander polynomial for fibered knots, we show in this paper that the Reidemeister torsion associated to a certain representation detects fiberedness of knots in the three sphere.
We observe that Clay-Rolfsen's obstruction of bi-orderability, which uses the classical Alexander polynomial, is not strengthened by using the twisted Alexander polynomials for finite representations unlike many known applications of the Alexander polynomial. This is shown by studying the maximal ordered abelian quotient of bi-ordered groups.
A classical result in knot theory says that the Alexander polynomial of a fibered knot is monic and that its degree equals twice the genus of the knot. This result has been generalized by various authors to twisted Alexander polynomials and fibered 3-manifolds. In this paper we show that the conditions on twisted Alexander polynomials are not only necessary but also sufficient for a 3-manifold to be fibered. By previous work of the authors this result implies that if a manifold of the form S^1 x N^3 admits a symplectic structure, then N fibers over S^1. In fact we will completely determine the…
We show that if the fundamental group of the complement of a rationally homologically fibered knot in a rational homology 3-sphere is bi-orderable, then its Alexander polynomial has at least one positive real root. Our argument can be applied for a finitely generated group which is an HNN extension with certain properties.
We realize a given (monic) Alexander polynomial by a (fibered) hyperbolic arborescent knot and link of any number of components, and by infinitely many such links of at least 4 components. As a consequence, a Mahler measure minimizing polynomial, if it exists, is realized as the Alexander polynomial of a fibered hyperbolic link of at least 2 components. For given polynomial, we give also an upper bound on the minimal hyperbolic volume of knots/links, and contrarily, construct knots of arbitrarily large volume, which are arborescent, or have given free genus at least 2.
We show that a regular isomorphism of profinite completion of the fundamental groups of two 3-manifolds $N_1$ and $N_2$ induces an isometry of the Thurston norms and a bijection between the fibered classes. We study to what extent does the profinite completion of knot groups distinguish knots and show that it distinguishes each torus knot and the figure eight knot among all knots. We show also that it distinguishes between hyperbolic knots with cyclically commensurable complements under the assumption that their Alexander polynomials have at least one zero which is not a root of unity.
Recently twisted and higher order Alexander polynomials were used by Cochran, Harvey, Friedl--Kim and Turaev to give lower bounds on the Thurston norm. We first show how Reidemeister torsion relates to these Alexander polynomials. We then give lower bounds on the Thurston norm in terms of the Reidemeister torsion which contain and extend all the above lower bounds and give an elegant reformulation of the bounds of Cochran, Harvey and Turaev. The Reidemeister torsion approach also gives a natural approach to proving and extending certain monotonicity results of Cochran and Harvey.
Homologically fibered knots are knots whose exteriors satisfy the same homological conditions as fibered knots. In our previous paper, we observed that for such a knot, higher-order Alexander invariants defined by Cochran, Harvey and Friedl are generally factorized into the part of the Magnus matrix and that of a certain Reidemeister torsion, both of which are known as invariants of homology cylinders over a surface. In this paper, we study more details of the invariants and give some concrete calculations by restricting to the case of the invariants associated with metabelian quotients of the…
For a fibered knot in the 3-sphere the twisted Alexander polynomial associated to an SL(2,C)-character is known to be monic. It is conjectured that for a nonfibered knot there is a curve component of the SL(2,C)-character variety containing only finitely many characters whose twisted Alexander polynomials are monic, i.e. finiteness of such characters detects fiberedness of knots. In this paper we discuss the existence of a certain curve component which relates to the conjecture when knots have nonmonic Alexander polynomials. We also discuss the similar problem of detecting the knot genus.
We continue the study of the twisted Novikov homology, introduced in our joint paper with H.Goda (arXiv:math.DG/0312374), and its generalizations. The main applications of the developed algebraic techniques are to the topology of 3-manifolds. We show in particular that the twisted Novikov homology of a 3-manifold M of zero Euler characteristic vanishes if and only if the corresponding twisted Alexander polynomial of the fundamental group of M is monic. We discuss the relations between the Thurston norm on 1-cohomology of a three-dimensional manifold and the twisted Novikov homology of this man…
We study the twisted Alexander polynomial from the viewpoint of the SL(2,C)-character variety of nonabelian representations of a knot group. It is known that if a knot is fibered, then the twisted Alexander polynomials associated with nonabelian SL(2,C)-representations are all monic. In this paper, we show that the converse holds for 2-bridge knots. Furthermore we show that for a 2-bridge knot there exists a curve component in the SL(2,C)-character variety such that if the knot is not fibered then there are only finitely many characters in the component for which the associated twisted Alexand…
In a recent paper, McMullen showed an inequality between the Thurston norm and the Alexander norm of a 3-manifold. This generalizes the well-known fact that twice the genus of a knot is bounded from below by the degree of the Alexander polynomial. We extend the Bennequin inequality for links to an inequality for all points of the Thurston norm, if the manifold is a link complement. We compare these two inequalities on two classes of closed braids. In an additional section we discuss a conjectured inequality due to Morton for certain points of the Thurston norm. We prove Morton's conjecture for…
Using the mapping cone of a rational surgery, we give several obstructions for Seifert fibered surgeries, including obstructions on the Alexander polynomial, the knot Floer homology, the surgery coefficient and the Seifert and four-ball genus of the knot.
We study when the Thurston norm is detected by twisted Alexander polynomials associated to representations of the 3-manifold group to SL(2, C). Specifically, we show that the hyperbolic torsion polynomial determines the genus for a large class of hyperbolic knots in the 3-sphere which includes all special arborescent knots and many knots whose ordinary Alexander polynomial is trivial. This theorem follows from results showing that the tautness of certain sutured manifolds can be certified by checking that they are a product from the point of view of homology with coefficients twisted by an SL(…
We prove that for "most" closed 3-dimensional manifolds $M$, the existence of a closed non singular one-form in a given cohomology class $u\in H^1 (M,\bf R)$ is equivalent to the fact that every twisted Alexander polynomial $Δ^H(M,u) \in {\bf Z}[G/\ker u]$ associated to a normal subgroup with finite index $H < π_1(M)$ has a unitary $u$-minimal term.
We study the twisted Alexander polynomial $Δ_{K,ρ}$ of a knot $K$ associated to a non-abelian representation $ρ$ of the knot group into $SL_2(\BC)$. It is known for every knot $K$ that if $K$ is fibered, then for every non-abelian representation, $Δ_{K,ρ}$ is monic and has degree $4g(K)-2$ where $g(K)$ is the genus of $K$. Kim and Morifuji recently proved the converse for 2-bridge knots. In fact they proved a stronger result: if a 2-bridge knot $K$ is non-fibered, then all but finitely many non-abelian representations on some component have $Δ_{K,ρ}$ non-monic and degree $4g(K)-2$. In this pap…
We explore certain restrictions on knots in the three-sphere which admit non-trivial Seifert fibered surgeries. These restrictions stem from the Heegaard Floer homology for Seifert fibered spaces, and hence they have consequences for both the Alexander polynomial of such knots, and also their knot Floer homology. In particular, we show that certain polynomials are never the Alexander polynomials of knots which admit homology three-sphere Seifert fibered surgeries. The knot Floer homology restrictions, on the other hand, apply also in cases where the Alexander polynomial gives no information, s…
We investigate Friedl-Lück's universal $L^2$-torsion for descending HNN extensions of finitely generated free groups, and so in particular for $F_n$-by-$\mathbb{Z}$ groups. This invariant induces a semi-norm on the first cohomology of the group which is an analogue of the Thurston norm for $3$-manifold groups. We prove that this Thurston semi-norm is an upper bound for the Alexander semi-norm defined by McMullen, as well as for the higher Alexander semi-norms defined by Harvey. The same inequalities are known to hold for $3$-manifold groups. We also prove that the Newton polytopes of the unive…
We calculate the twisted Alexander polynomials of $(-2,3,2n+1)$-pretzel knots associated to their holonomy representations. As a corollary, we obtain new supporting evidences of Dunfield, Friedl and Jackson's conjecture, that is, the twisted Alexander polynomials of hyperbolic knots associated to their holonomy representations determine the genus and fiberedness of the knots.
This is a survey of the impact of Thurston's work on knot theory, laying emphasis on the two characteristic features, rigidity and flexibility, of 3-dimensional hyperbolic structures. We also lay emphasis on the role of the classical invariants, the Alexander polynomial and the homology of finite branched/unbranched coverings.
It is known that the Alexander polynomial detects fibered knots and 3-manifolds that fiber over the circle. In this note, we show that when the Alexander polynomial becomes inconclusive, the notion of "knot adjacency", studied in the paper "Knot adjacency, genus and essential tori" by the authors, can be used to obtain obstructions to fibering of knots and of 3-manifolds. As an application, given a fibered knot K', we construct infinitely many non-fibered knots that share the same Alexander module and the same Vassiliev invariants up to certain orders with K'. Our construction also provides, f…
We introduce a new algebraic topological technique to detect non-fibred knots in the three sphere using the twisted Alexander invariants. As an application, we show that for any Seifert matrix of a knot with a nontrivial Alexander polynomial, there exist infinitely many non-fibered knots with the given Seifert matrix. We illustrate examples of knots that have trivial Alexander polynomials but do not have twisted Alexander invariants of fibred knots.
Given a fibered link, consider the characteristic polynomial of the monodromy restricted to first homology. This generalizes the notion of the Alexander polynomial of a knot. We define a construction, called iterated plumbing, to create a sequence of fibered links from a given one. The resulting sequence of characteristic polynomials has the same form as those arising in work of Salem and Boyd in their study of distributions of Salem and P-V numbers. From this we deduce information about the asymptotic behavior of the large roots of the generalized Alexander polynomials, and define a new poset…
In this paper we show that the twisted Alexander polynomial associated to a parabolic representation determines fiberedness and genus of a wide class of 2-bridge knots. As a corollary we give an affirmative answer to a conjecture of Dunfield, Friedl and Jackson for infinitely many hyperbolic knots.
For an irreducible orientable compact $3$-manifold $N$ with empty or incompressible toral boundary, the full $L^2$--Alexander torsion $τ^{(2)}(N,ϕ)(t)$ associated to any real first cohomology class $ϕ$ of $N$ is represented by a function of a positive real variable $t$. The paper shows that $τ^{(2)}(N,ϕ)$ is continuous, everywhere positive, and asymptotically monomial in both ends. Moreover, the degree of $τ^{(2)}(N,ϕ)$ equals the Thurston norm of $ϕ$. The result confirms a conjecture of J.~Dubois, S.~Friedl, and W.~Lück and addresses a question of W.~Li and W.~Zhang. Associated to any admissi…
We introduce $L^2$-Alexander torsions for 3-manifolds, which can be viewed as a generalization of the $L^2$-Alexander polynomial of Li--Zhang. We state the $L^2$-Alexander torsions for graph manifolds and we partially compute them for fibered manifolds. We furthermore show that given any irreducible 3-manifold there exists a coefficient system such that the corresponding $L^2$-torsion detects the Thurston norm.
In the early 2000's Cochran and Harvey introduced non-commutative Alexander polynomials for 3-manifolds. Their degrees give strong lower bounds on the Thurston norm. In this paper we make the case that the vanishing of a certain Novikov-Sikorav homology module is the correct notion of a monic non-commutative Alexander polynomial. Furthermore we will use the opportunity to give new proofs of several statements about Novikov-Sikorav homology in the three-dimensional context.
In this paper we present a sequence of link invariants, defined from twisted Alexander polynomials, and discuss their effectiveness in distinguish knots. In particular, we recast and extend by geometric means a recent result of Silver and Williams on the nontriviality of twisted Alexander polynomials for nontrivial knots. Furthermore building on results in [FV06b] we prove that these invariants decide if a genus one knot is fibered, and we also show that these invariants distinguish all mutants with up to 12 crossings.
We study incompressible surfaces constructed by Culler-Shalen theory in the context of twisted Alexander polynomials. For a $1$st cohomology class of a $3$-manifold the coefficients of twisted Alexander polynomials induce regular functions on the $SL_2(\mathbb{C})$-character variety. We prove that if an ideal point gives a Thurston norm minimizing non-separating surface dual to the cohomology class, then the regular function of the highest degree has a finite value at the ideal point.
Twisted Alexander invariants of knots are well-defined up to multiplication of units. We get rid of this multiplicative ambiguity via a combinatorial method and define normalized twisted Alexander invariants. We then show that the invariants coincide with sign-determined Reidemeister torsion in a normalized setting, and refine the duality theorem. We further obtain necessary conditions on the invariants for a knot to be fibered, and study behavior of the highest degrees of the invariants.
The instanton Floer homology of a knot in the three-sphere is a vector space with a canonical mod 2 grading. It carries a distinguished endomorphism of even degree,arising from the 2-dimensional homology class represented by a Seifert surface. The Floer homology decomposes as a direct sum of the generalized eigenspaces of this endomorphism. We show that the Euler characteristics of these generalized eigenspaces are the coefficients of the Alexander polynomial of the knot. Among other applications, we deduce that instanton homology detects fibered knots.
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）
We show that link Floer homology detects the Thurston norm of a link complement. As an application, we show that the Thurston polytope of an alternating link is dual to the Newton polytope of its multi-variable Alexander polynomial. To illustrate these techniques, we also compute the Thurston polytopes of several specific link complements.
We prove that every lens space contains a genus one homologically fibered knot, which is contrast to the fact that some lens spaces contain no genus one fibered knot. In the proof, the Chebotarev density theorem and binary quadratic forms in number theory play a key role. We also discuss the Alexander polynomial of homologically fibered knots.
In 1976 Thurston associated to a $3$-manifold $N$ a marked polytope in $H_1(N;\mathbb{R}),$ which measures the minimal complexity of surfaces representing homology classes and determines all fibered classes in $H^1(N;\mathbb{R})$. Recently the first and the last author associated to a presentation $π$ with two generators and one relator a marked polytope in $H_1(π;\mathbb{R})$ and showed that it determines the Bieri-Neumann-Strebel invariant of $π$. In this paper, we show that if the fundamental group of a 3-manifold $N$ admits such a presentation $π$, then the corresponding marked polytopes i…
We present an overview of the study of the Thurston norm, introduced by W. P. Thurston in the seminal paper "A norm for the homology of 3-manifolds" (written in 1976 and published in 1986). We first review fundamental properties of the Thurston norm of a 3-manifold, including a construction of codimension-1 taut foliations from norm-minimizing embedded surfaces, established by D. Gabai. In the main part we describe relationships between the Thurston norm and other topological invariants of a 3-manifold: the Alexander polynomial and its various generalizations, Reidemeister torsion, the Seiberg…
We give examples of non-fibered hyperbolic knot complements in homology spheres that are not commensurable to fibered knot complements in homology spheres. In fact, we give many examples of knot complements in homology spheres with the property that every commensurable knot complement in a homology sphere has non-monic Alexander polynomial.
The derived group of a permutation representation, introduced by R.H. Crowell, unites many notions of knot theory. We survey Crowell's construction, and offer new applications. The twisted Alexander group of a knot is defined. Using it, we obtain twisted Alexander modules and polynomials. Also, we extend a well-known theorem of Neuwirth and Stallings giving necessary and sufficient conditions for a knot to be fibered. Virtual Alexander polynomials provide obstructions for a virtual knot that must vanish if the knot has a diagram with an Alexander numbering. The extended group of a virtual knot…
