The colored Jones polynomials and the simplicial volume of a knot (Q5936374)

Using the quantum dilogarithm, \textit{R. M. Kashaev} defined a family of complex-valued link invariants indexed by integers \(N \geq 2\) [A link invariant from quantum dilogarithm, Mod. Phys. Lett. A 10, No. 19, 1409-1418 (1995; Zbl 1022.81574)]; after verifying it for the three simplest hyperbolic knots, he conjectured that for any hyperbolic knot the invariant grows as \(\text{exp(Vol}(K)N/2\pi\)) when \(N\) goes to infinity, where \(\text{Vol}(K)\) denotes the volume of the complement of the knot. In the present paper, to ``reveal his mysterious definition'' and to make this intriguing conjecture more accessible, it is shown that his invariant is nothing but a specialization of the colored Jones polynomial (each component of the link being decorated with an irreducible representation of the Lie algebra \(\text{sl}(2,\mathbb C)\)). Whereas the original Jones polynomial corresponds to the case that all the colors are identical to the 2-dimensional fundamental representation, it is shown that Kashaev's invariant with parameter \(N\) coincides with the colored Jones polynomial, in a certain normalization, with every color the \(N\)-dimensional representation evaluated at the primitive \(N\)th root of unity. It is also shown that the generalized multivariable Alexander polynomial as defined by \textit{Y. Akutsu, T. Deguchi} and \textit{T. Ohtsuki} [J. Knot Theory Ramifications 1, No. 2, 161-184 (1992; Zbl 0758.57004)], parametrized by an integer \(N\) and complex numbers decorating the components, becomes equal to Kashaev's invariant when all colors are chosen to be \((N-1)/2\) (by showing that their representation becomes the usual representation corresponding to the irreducible \(N\)-dimensional representation of \(\text{sl}(2,\mathbb C)\)). Finally, observing that Gromov's simplicial volume is additive and unchanged by mutation, it is conjectured that Kashaev's invariants (= specializations of the colored Jones polynomial = specializations of the generalized multivariable Alexander polynomial) determine the simplicial volume (``dröm i Djursholm'': ``if our dream comes true, then we can show that a knot is trivial if and only if all of its Vassiliev invariants are trivial'').