Torsion numbers of augmented groups with applications to knots and links. (Q1419580)

An augmentation for a group \(G\) is an epimorphism \(\lambda:G\to\mathbb{Z}\). The key example is the abelianization homomorphism for a knot group, and the motivating problem is the asymptotic dependence of the torsion number \(b_r\) of the \(r\)-fold cyclic branched cover of a knot \(K\) on \(r\), which is considered here in the wider context of augmented groups. Methods from algebraic dynamical systems are used to show that the torsion numbers grow exponentially, with growth rate the Mahler measure of the Alexander polynomial \(\Delta_K\). Using the \(p\)-adic Jensen formula, it is also shown that for each prime \(p\) the \(p\)-primary part of the order grows subexponentially. It follows that if \(\Delta_K\) does not divide \(t^n-1\) for some \(n\) then the prime divisors of the torsion numbers \(\{b_r\}\) are unbounded as \(r\) increases. The final section considers the case of links, and in Theorem 5.10 dynamical systems methods are applied to general (finite) abelian branched covers of a 2-component link. (One could add to Remark 5.4 the observation that if \(L\) is a link with at least 3 components then \(\Delta_L(1)=0\), so for knot theorists Proposition 5.3 is only of interest for knots and 2-component links. In lines 5 and 16 of the proof of Theorem 5.10 the subscript \(\eta\) should be \(\Lambda\).)