The profinite completions of knot groups determine the Alexander polynomials (Q1673646)

This paper looks at what profinite completions of knot groups know about the fundamental groups of finite covering spaces of a knot's exterior, proving the result stated in its title. In this, it principally makes use of the properties of completed group rings and Alexander modules of knots. An extensive survey of prior partial results and applications, citing more than 50 references ranging from this reviewer's work to Perelman's unpublished proof of the geometrization conjecture, examines in detail the topological properties revealed by 3-manifold groups, concluding with a promise to try to apply the author's methods to twisted Alexander polynomials and other invariants ``in our future work.''