Related papers: Twisted Alexander polynomials and incompressible s…
The coefficients of twisted Alexander polynomials of a knot induce regular functions of the $SL_2(\mathbb{C})$-character variety. We prove that the function of the highest degree has a finite value at an ideal point which gives a minimal…
We give a simple sufficient condition for a spun-normal surface in an ideal triangulation to be incompressible, namely that it is a vertex surface with non-empty boundary which has a quadrilateral in each tetrahedron. While this condition…
In the seminal work of Culler and Shalen from 1983, essential surfaces in 3-manifolds are associated to ideal points of their $\text{SL}_2(\mathbb{C})$-character varieties, and connections between the algebraic geometry of the character…
Closed essential surfaces in a three-manifold can be detected by ideal points of the character variety or by algebraic non-integral representations. We give examples of closed essential surfaces not detected in either of these ways. For…
This paper illustrates a computational approach to Culler-Morgan-Shalen theory using ideal triangulations, spun-normal surfaces and tropical geometry. Certain affine algebraic sets associated to the Whitehead link complement as well as…
We define twisted Alexander polynomials of a complex hypersurface with arbitrary singularities. These generalize the classical Alexander polynomials of high dimensional hypersurfaces and the twisted Alexander polynomial of plane curves. We…
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…
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.
Culler and Shalen, and later Yoshida, give ways to construct incompressible surfaces in 3-manifolds from ideal points of the character and deformation varieties, respectively. We work in the case of hyperbolic punctured torus bundles, for…
Given a triangulation of a closed, oriented, irreducible, atoroidal 3-manifold every oriented, incompressible surface may be isotoped into normal position relative to the triangulation. Such a normal oriented surface is then encoded by…
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…
We define and study twisted Alexander-type invariants of complex hypersurface complements. We investigate torsion properties for the twisted Alexander modules and extend classical local-to-global divisibility results to the twisted setting.…
In this paper we define the adjoint Reidemeister torsion as a differential form on the character variety of a compact oriented 3-manifold with toral boundary, and prove it defines a regular volume form. Then we show that the torsion form…
We give a short introduction to the theory of twisted Alexander polynomials of a 3--manifold associated to a representation of its fundamental group. We summarize their formal properties and we explain their relationship to twisted…
A theory of transversely oriented spun-normal immersed surfaces in ideally triangulated 3--manifolds is developed in this paper, including linear functionals determining the boundary curves, Euler characteristic and homology class of these…
Landry, Minsky and Taylor defined the taut polynomial of a veering triangulation. Its specialisations generalise the Teichmuller polynomial of a fibred face of the Thurston norm ball. We prove that the taut polynomial of a veering…
Extending Culler-Shalen theory, Hara and the second author presented a way to construct certain kinds of branched surfaces in a $3$-manifold from an ideal point of a curve in the $\operatorname{SL}_n$-character variety. There exists an…
We study a twisted Alexander polynomial naturally associated to a hyperbolic knot in an integer homology 3-sphere via a lift of the holonomy representation to SL(2, C). It is an unambiguous symmetric Laurent polynomial whose coefficients…
Let M be a 4-manifold which admits a free circle action. We use twisted Alexander polynomials to study the existence of symplectic structures and the minimal complexity of surfaces in M. The results on the existence of symplectic structures…
We study the cohomology groups $H^1(X,\Theta_X(-mK_X))$, for $m\geq1$, where $X$ is a smooth minimal complex surface of general type, $\Theta_X$ its holomorphic tangent bundle, and $K_X$ its canonical divisor. One of the main results is a…