In this note we announce several results concerning the SL(2,C) character variety ${\mathcal X}$ of the one-holed torus. We give a description of the largest open subset ${\mathcal X}_{BQ}$ of ${\mathcal X}$ on which the mapping class group $Γ$ acts properly discontinuously, in terms of two very simple conditions, and show that a series identity generalizing McShane's identity for the punctured torus holds for all characters in this subset. We also give variations of the McShane-Bowditch identities to characters fixed by an Anosov element of $Γ$ with applications to closed hyperbolic three manifolds. Finally we give a definition of end invariants for SL(2,C) characters and give a partial classification of the set of end invariants of a character in ${\mathcal X}$.
Given a closed binding curve $γ$ of a surface $Σ$, any equivalence class of marked complete hyperbolic structure can be decomposed into polygons(possibly with a puncture) with sides being hyperbolic geodesic segments. When $Σ$ is a one-holed torus and $γ= A^3 B^2$, we show that any equivalence class of marked complete hyperbolic structure gives rise to an equilateral bigon with a puncture and a hexagon with equal opposite sides. In particular, we give a new coordinates of the Fricke Space of the one-holed torus.
In the mapping class group of a $k$-holed torus with $0 \leq k \leq 9$, one can factorize the boundary multi-twist (or the identity when $k=0$) as the product of twelve right-handed Dehn twists. Such factorizations were explicitly given by Korkmaz and Ozbagci for each $k \leq 9$ and an alternative one for $k=8$ by Tanaka. In this note, we simplify their expressions for the $k$-holed torus relations.
For $N \geq 2$, we study a certain sequence $(ρ_p^{(c_p)})$ of N-dimensional representations of the mapping class group of the one-holed torus arising from SO(3)-TQFT, and show that the conjecture of Andersen, Masbaum, and Ueno \cite{1} holds for these representations. This is done by proving that, in a certain basis and up to a rescaling, the matrices of these representations converge as $p$ tends to infinity. Moreover, the limits describe the action of $SL_{2}(\mathbb{Z})$ on the space of homogeneous polynomials of two variables of total degree $N-1$.
In this paper we consider the action of the mapping class group of a surface on the space of homomorphisms from the fundamental group of a surface into PSL(2,R). Goldman conjectured that when the surface is closed and of genus bigger than one, the action on non-Teichmuller connected components of the associated moduli space (i.e. the space of homomorphisms modulo conjugation) is ergodic. One approach to this question is to use sewing techniques which requires that one considers the action on the level of homomorphisms, and for surfaces with boundary. In this paper we consider the case of the o…
We extend a theorem of Masur and Wolf which says that given a hyperbolic surface S, every isometry of the Teichmuller space for S with the Weil-Petersson metric is induced by an element of the mapping class group for S. Our argument handles the previously untreated cases of the four-holed sphere, the one-holed torus, and the two-holed torus.
We give new explicit formulas for the representations of the mapping class group of a genus one surface with one boundary component which arise from Integral TQFT. Our formulas allow one to compute the h-adic expansion of the TQFT-matrix associated to a mapping class in a straightforward way. Truncating the h-adic expansion gives an approximation of the representation by representations into finite groups. As a special case, we study the induced representations over finite fields and identify them up to isomorphism. The key technical ingredient of the paper are new bases of the Integral TQFT m…
We define and study the set ${\mathcal E}(ρ)$ of end invariants of a $\SL(2,C)$ character $ρ$ of the one-holed torus $T$. We show that the set ${\mathcal E}(ρ)$ is the entire projective lamination space $\mathscr{PL}$ of $T$ if and only if (i) $ρ$ corresponds to the dihedral representation, or (ii) $ρ$ is real and corresponds to a SU(2) representation; and that otherwise, ${\mathcal E}(ρ)$ is closed and has empty interior in $\mathscr{PL}$. For real characters $ρ$, we give a complete classification of ${\mathcal E}(ρ)$, and show that ${\mathcal E}(ρ)$ has either 0, 1 or infinitely many element…
A natural family of affine cubic surfaces arises from SL(2)-characters of the 4-holed sphere and the 1-holed torus. The ideal locus is a tritangent plane which is generic in the sense that the cubic curve at infinity consists of three lines pairwise intersecting in three double points. We show that every affine cubic surface which is smooth at infinity and whose ideal locus is a generic tritangent plane arises as a relative SL(2)-character variety of the 4-holed sphere. Every such affine cubic for which all the periodic automorphisms of the tritangent plane extend to automorphisms of the cubic…
Luo and Tan gave a new identity for hyperbolic surfaces with/without geodesic boundary in terms of dilogarithms of the lengths of simple closed geodesics on embedded three-holed spheres or one-holed tori. However, the identity was trivial for a hyperbolic one-holed torus with geodesic boundary. In this paper we adapt the argument from Luo and Tan to give an identity for hyperbolic tori with one geodesic boundary or cusp in terms of dilogarithm functions on the set of lengths of simple closed geodesics on the torus. As a corollary, we are also able to express the Luo-Tan identity as a sum over …
We study the (relative) SL(2,C) character varieties of the three-holed projective plane and the action of the mapping class group on them. We describe a domain of discontinuity for this action, which strictly contains the set of primitive stable representations defined by Minsky, and also the set of convex-cocompact characters. We consider the relationship with the previous work of the authors and S. P. Tan on the character variety of the four-holed sphere.
We study the (relative) SL(2,C) character varieties of the four-holed sphere and the action of the mapping class group on it. We describe a domain of discontinuity for this action, and, in the case of real characters, show that this domain of discontinuity may be non-empty on the components where the relative euler class is non-maximal.
We study Thurston's Lipschitz and curve metrics, as well as the arc metric on the Teichmueller space of one-hold tori equipped with complete hyperbolic metrics with boundary holonomy of fixed length. We construct natural Lipschitz maps between two surfaces equipped with such hyperbolic metrics that generalize Thurston's stretch maps and prove the following: (1) On the Teichmueller space of the torus with one boundary component, the Lipschitz and the curve metrics coincide and define a geodesic metric on this space. (2) On the same space, the arc and the curve metrics coincide when the length o…
We generalize McShane's identity for the length series of simple closed geodesics on a cusped hyperbolic surface to hyperbolic cone-surfaces (with all cone angles $\le π$), possibly with cusps and/or geodesic boundary. In particular, by applying the generalized identity to the orbifolds obtained from taking the quotient of the one-holed torus by its elliptic involution, and the closed genus two surface by its hyper-elliptic involution, we obtain generalizations of the Weierstrass identities for the one-holed torus, and identities for the genus two surface, also obtained by McShane using differ…
We study flip-graphs of triangulations on topological surfaces where distance is measured by counting the number of necessary flip operations between two triangulations. We focus on surfaces of positive genus $g$ with a single boundary curve and $n$ marked points on this curve; we consider triangulations up to homeomorphism with the marked points as their vertices. Our main results are upper and lower bounds on the maximal distance between triangulations depending on $n$ and can be thought of as bounds on the diameter of flip-graphs up to the quotient of underlying homeomorphism groups. The ma…
A slope $\frac pq$ is called a characterizing slope for a given knot $K_0\subset S^3$ if whenever the $\frac pq$--surgery on a knot $K\subset S^3$ is homeomorphic to the $\frac pq$--surgery on $K_0$ via an orientation preserving homeomorphism, then $K=K_0$. In a previous paper, we showed that, outside a certain finite set of slopes, only the negative integers could possibly be non-characterizing slopes for the torus knot $T_{5,2}$. Applying recent work of Baldwin--Hu--Sivek, we improve our result by showing that a nontrivial slope $\frac pq$ is a characterizing slope for $T_{5,2}$ if $\frac pq…
Let G be the fundamental group of the complement of the torus knot of type (m,n). This has a presentation G=<x,y|x^m=y^n>. We find the geometric description of the character variety X(G) of characters of representations of G into SL(3,C), GL(3,C) and PGL(3,C).
We describe a strategy for constructing reduced Khovanov homology for links in lens spaces by generalizing a symplectic interpretation of reduced Khovanov homology for links in $S^3$ due to Hedden, Herald, Hogancamp, and Kirk. The strategy relies on a partly conjectural description of the Fukaya category of the traceless $SU(2)$ character variety of the 2-torus with two punctures. From a diagram of a 1-tangle in a solid torus, we construct a corresponding object $(X,δ)$ in the $A_\infty$ category of twisted complexes over this Fukaya category. The homotopy type of $(X,δ)$ is an isotopy invaria…
We obtain new variations of the original McShane identity for those SL(2,C)-representations of the once punctured torus group which satisfy the Bowditch conditions, and also for those fixed up to conjugacy by an Anosov mapping class of the torus and satisfying the relative Bowditch conditions.
In this paper, we compute the motive of the character variety of representations of the fundamental group of the complement of an arbitrary torus knot into $SL_4(k)$, for any algebraically closed field $k$ of zero characteristic. For that purpose, we introduce a stratification of the variety in terms of the type of a canonical filtration attached to any representation. This allows us to reduce the computation of the motive to a combinatorial problem.
In this paper we present some families of polynomials and use them to find, using the techniques in \cite{gma}, a defining polynomial for the $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$ character variety (as defined in \cite{cus}) of the torus knots of type $(m,2)$ with $m>1$ being an odd integer.
We determine the PSL_2(C) and SL_2(C) character varieties of the once-punctured torus bundles with tunnel number one, i.e. the once-punctured torus bundles that arise from filling one boundary component of the Whitehead link exterior. In particular, we determine `natural' models for these algebraic sets, identify them up to birational equivalence with smooth models, and compute the genera of the canonical components. This enables us to compare dilatations of the monodromies of these bundles with these genera. We also determine the minimal polynomials for the trace fields of these manifolds. Ad…
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 reveal an intimate connection between the quantum knot invariant for torus knot T(s,t) and the character of the minimal model M(s,t), where s and t are relatively prime integers. We show that Kashaev's invariant, i.e., the N-colored Jones polynomial at the N-th root of unity, coincides with the Eichler integral of the character.
Let G be a simple complex algebraic group and g its Lie algebra. We show that the g-Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev quantum invariants determine a deformation-quantization, C_q[X_G(torus)], of the coordinate ring of the G-character variety of the torus. We prove that this deformation is in the direction of the Goldman's bracket. Furthermore, we show that every knot K defines an ideal I_K in C_q[X_G(torus)]. We conjecture that the homomorphism C_q[X_G(torus)] -> C[X_G(torus)], q -> 1, maps I_K to the ideal whose radical is the kernel of the map C[X_G(torus)] -> C[X_G(S^3 K)]. This conjecture is relat…
The state of a knot is defined in the realm of Chern-Simons topological quantum field theory as a holomorphic section on the SU(2) character manifold of the peripheral torus. We compute the asymptotics of the torus knot states in terms of the Alexander polynomial, the Reidemeister torsion and the Chern-Simons invariant. We also prove that the microsupport of the torus knot state is included in the character manifold of the knot exterior. As a corollary we deduce the Witten asymptotics conjecture for the Dehn filling of the torus knots and asymptotic expansions for the colored Jones polynomials…
Let $p<p'$ be a pair of coprime positive integers. In this note, generalizing Morton's work in the case of $\mathfrak{sl}_2$, we give a formula for the $\mathfrak{sl}_r$ Jones invariants of torus knots $T(p,p')$ coloured with the finite-dimensional irreducible representations $L_r(nΛ_1)$. When $r \leq p$, we show that appropriate limits of the shifted (non-normalized, framing dependent) invariants calculated along $L_r(nrΛ_1)$ are essentially the characters of certain minimal model principal $\mathcal{W}$ algebras of type $\mathrm{A}$, namely, $\mathcal{W}_r(p,p')$, up to some factors independ…
