Related papers: On Character varieties of two-bridge knot groups

We show that the $(4,5)$- and $(5,6)$-torus knots admit ghost characters. Consequently, these knots provide counterexamples to Ng's conjecture, which proposes an isomorphism between the complexification of degree $0$ abelian knot contact…

We investigate the existence of some affine structure on SL 2 (C)-character varieties on the four-punctured sphere through web and symplectic geometry. This work provides a new proof of non integrability (i.e. irreducibility) of…

We consider vector fields on knot/link complements in $S^3$ which are transverse to the fibres of a fibration of the complement over a circle. We prove that a large class of fibred knots/links, including all non-torus fibred 2-bridge knots,…

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…

We study the twisted Alexander polynomial $\Delta_{K,\rho}$ of a knot $K$ associated to a non-abelian representation $\rho$ of the knot group into $SL_2(\BC)$. It is known for every knot $K$ that if $K$ is fibered, then for every…

Given a 2-stranded tangle in a $\ZZ/2$ homology ball, $T\subset Y$, we investigate the character variety $R(Y,T)$ of conjugacy classes of traceless SU(2) representations of $\pi_1(Y\setminus T)$. In particular we completely determine the…

For every genus $g\geq 2$, we construct an infinite family of strongly quasipositive fibred knots having the same Seifert form as the torus knot $T(2,2g+1)$. In particular, their signatures and four-genera are maximal and their homological…

In this paper, we study a special family of $(1,1)$ knots called constrained knots, which includes 2-bridge knots in the 3-sphere $S^3$ and simple knots in lens spaces. Constrained knots are parameterized by five integers and characterized…

We study the structure underlying Ng's conjecture, which relates the degree $0$ abelian knot contact homology of a knot $K$ to the coordinate ring of the $SL_2(\mathbf{C})$-character variety $X(\Sigma_2 K)$ of the $2$-fold branched cover of…

We study the relationship between Ng's abelian cord ring and SL(2,C) characters of the two-fold branched cover $\Sigma(K)$. Augmentations, and their corresponding rank, play a central role in the relationship. Our study also leads to a…

In this paper we consider some families of links, including (-2,2m+1,2n)-pretzel links and twisted Whitehead links. We calculate the character varieties of these families, and determine the number of irreducible components of these…

We give a description of several representation varieties of the fundamental group of the complement of the figure eight knot in PGL(3,C) or SL(3,C). We moreover obtain an explicit parametrization of matrices generating the representation…

We call a knot in the 3-sphere $SU(2)$-simple if all representations of the fundamental group of its complement which map a meridian to a trace-free element in $SU(2)$ are binary dihedral. This is a generalisation of being a 2-bridge knot.…

We give explicit equations that describe the character variety of the figure eight knot for the groups SL(3,C), GL(3,C) and PGL(3,C). This has five components of dimension 2, one consisting of totally reducible representations, another one…

Let $K,K'$ be two-bridge knots of genus $n,k$ respectively. We show the necessary and sufficient condition of $n$ in terms of $k$ that there exists an epimorphism from the knot group of $K$ onto that of $K'$.

We classify genus-two L-space knots in the Poincar\'e homology sphere. This leads to the second knot Floer homology detection result for a knot of genus at least two, and the first such result outside of $S^3$. The argument uses the theory…

We investigate great circle links in the three-sphere, the class of links where each component is a great circle. Using the geometry of their complements, we classify such links up to five components. For any two-bridge knot complement,…

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…

In this paper we apply the twisted Alexander polynomial to study the fibering and genus detecting problems for oriented links. In particular we generalize a conjecture of Dunfield, Friedl and Jackson on the torsion polynomial of hyperbolic…

In this paper, we consider generalizations of the Alexander polynomial and signature of 2-bridge knots by considering the Gordon-Litherland bilinear forms associated to essential state surfaces of the 2-bridge knots. We show that the…