Related papers: Metabelian representations, twisted Alexander poly…

It follows from earlier work of Silver-Williams and the authors that twisted Alexander polynomials detect the unknot and the Hopf link. We now show that twisted Alexander polynomials also detect the trefoil and the figure-8 knot, that…

Morifuji computed the twisted Alexander polynomial of twist knots for nonabelian representations. In this paper we compute the twisted Alexander polynomial and the Reidemeister torsion of genus one two-bridge knots, a class of knots which…

Let $K$ be a prime knot in $S^3$ and $G(K)=\pi_1(S^3-K)$ the knot group. We write $K_1 \geq K_2$ if there exists a surjective homomorphism from $G(K_1)$ onto $G(K_2)$. In this paper, we determine this partial order on the set of prime knots…

If phi: G-->G' is a surjective homomorphism, we prove that the twisted Alexander polynomial of G is divisible by the twisted Alexander polynomial of G'. As an application, we show non-existence of surjective homomorphism between certain…

We introduce and explore the relation between knot invariants and quiver representation theory, which follows from the identification of quiver quantum mechanics in D-brane systems representing knots. We identify various structural…

Knot polynomials colored with symmetric representations of $SL_q(N)$ satisfy difference equations as functions of representation parameter, which look like quantization of classical ${\cal A}$-polynomials. However, they are quite difficult…

In 1928, Alexander defined a sequence of knot polynomials, D_i(K). The first, D_1(K), is the classical Alexander polynomial. These are easily defined in terms of the homology of the infinite cyclic cover of the knot. In theory they can be…

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.

We show that if the connected sum of two knots with coprime Alexander polynomials has vanishing von Neumann rho-invariants associated with certain metabelian representations then so do both knots. As an application, we give a new example of…

Many knots and links in S^3 can be drawn as gluing of three manifolds with one or more four-punctured S^2 boundaries. We call these knot diagrams as double fat graphs whose invariants involve only the knowledge of the fusion and the…

We investigate the twisted Alexander polynomial of a 2-bridge knot associated to a Fox coloring. For several families of 2-bridge knots, including but not limited to, torus knots and genus-one knots, we derive formulae for these twisted…

We provide a partial classification of the 3-strand pretzel knots $K = P(p,q,r)$ with unknotting number one. Following the classification by Kobayashi and Scharlemann-Thompson for all parameters odd, we treat the remaining families with $r$…

Twisted torus knots are a generalization of torus knots, obtained by introducing additional full twists to adjacent strands of the torus knots. In this article, we present an explicit formula for the Alexander polynomial of twisted torus…

In this paper, we compute the Khovanov homology over \Q for (p,-p,q) pretzel knots for odd values of p from 3 to 15 and arbitrarily large q. We provide a conjecture for the general form of the Khovanov homology of (p,-p,q) pretzel knots.…

Given a homomorphism from a link group to a group, we introduce a $K_1$-class in another way, which is a generalization of the 1-variable Alexander polynomial. We compare the $K_1$-class with $K_1$-classes in \cite{Nos} and with…

To every knot (or link) diagram K, we associate a cluster algebra A that contains a cluster x with the property that every cluster variable in x specializes to the Alexander polynomial of K. We call x the knot cluster of A. Furthermore,…

Many well studied knots can be realized as positive braid knots where the braid word contains a positive full twist; we say that such knots are twist positive. Some important families of knots are twist positive, including torus knots,…

We study spectral gaps of cellular differentials for finite cyclic coverings of knot complements. Their asymptotics can be expressed in terms of irrationality exponents associated with ratios of logarithms of algebraic numbers determined by…

We revisit the issue of the existence of infinitely many distinct prime knots with the same Alexander invariant. We present infinitely many distinct families, each family made up of infinitely many distinct knots. Within each family, the…

We use twisted Alexander polynomials to show that certain algebraically slice 2-bridge knots are not topologically slice, even though all prime power Casson-Gordon signatures vanish. We also provide some computations indicating the efficacy…