Knot state asymptotics. I: AJ conjecture and abelian representations (Q2354711)

This paper and its companion [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 121, Article ID 69, 323--361 (2015; Zbl 1325.57008)] introduce a semiclassical analytic approach to study the asymptotics of quantum knot invariants which rests on microlocal analysis in the context of geometric quantization of Kähler manifolds (e.g. [the first author, Commun. Math. Phys. 239, No. 1--2, 1--28 (2003; Zbl 1059.47030)]). As a smooth and real analogue of the AJ conjecture, the authors conjecture that the microsupport of a knot state is included in (perhaps equal to?) the image of the restriction map \(r:\, \mathcal{M}(E_K)\rightarrow \mathcal{M}(\Sigma)\). Here, \(E_K\) is the knot exterior, \(\Sigma = \partial E_K\) is its torus boundary, and \(\mathcal{M}(\bullet)\) is the moduli space of \(G\)-representations of the fundamental group up to conjugation. The authors verify the conjecture for \(G=SU(2)\) for the figure eight knot, and a weaker version of it for all torus knots (the complete proof for torus knots is in [\textit{L. Charles}, ``Torus knot state asymptotics'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1107.4692}]). The authors further conjecture an oscillatory integral representation of the knot state on the restriction of the moduli space of abelian representations of the knot group. The conjecture is based on the idea that the knot state ought to correspond to a Lagrangian in \(r(\mathcal{M}(E_K))\) in the sense of semiclassical analysis. The authors prove this conjecture for the figure eight knot and for the torus knots. Combining the two conjectures, the authors recover an asymptotic formula due to Jeffrey for the Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev invariants of lens spaces [\textit{L. C. Jeffrey}, Commun. Math. Phys. 147, No. 3, 563--604 (1992; Zbl 0755.53054)]. They furthermore formulate an analytic version of the Melvin-Morton-Rozansky conjecture which they prove for the figure eight knot and for the torus knots.