On the volume of double twist link cone-manifolds (Q1750756)

A hyperbolic three-dimensional cone-manifold is a hyperbolic three-manifold with singularities along simple closed curves, where around each component of the curves, the angle, called the cone angle, is not necessarily \(2\pi\). A Euclidean cone-manifold and a spherical cone-manifold can be defined similarly. Let \(L\) be a two-component link in the three-sphere \(S^3\). If \(L\) is hyperbolic, that is, its complement \(E_L:=S^3\setminus{L}\) possesses a complete hyperbolic structure, then one can deform the structure to obtain a hyperbolic cone-manifold \(E_L(\alpha,\beta)\) with cone angles \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\). For an integer \(m\neq0,-1\), let \(\mathcal{L}_m\) be the two-bridge link corresponding to the continued fraction \((2m+1)-1/(2m+1)\), which is known to be hyperbolic. It is also known that there exists \(\alpha_m\in\left[2\pi/3,\pi\right)\) such that \(E_{\mathcal{L}_m}(\alpha,\alpha)\) is hyperbolic when \(0<\alpha<\alpha_{m}\), Euclidean when \(\alpha=\alpha_{m}\), and spherical when \(\alpha_m<\alpha<\pi\) (see for example [\textit{J. Porti}, Kobe J. Math. 21, No. 1--2, 61--70 (2004; Zbl 1099.57013)]). In the paper under review the author obtains a formula for the volume of \(E_{\mathcal{L}_m}(\alpha,\alpha)\) (\(0<\alpha<\alpha_m\)) in terms of an integral of a function involving the Chebychev polynomial of the second kind. He also obtains the \(A\)-polynomial \(2\)-tuple corresponding to the canonical component of the \(\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{C})\)-character variety of \(\mathcal{L}_m\), where the canonical component is the component that contains the holonomy representation. Note that the \(A\)-polynomial \(\ell\)-tuple is a generalization of the \(A\)-polynomial [\textit{D. Cooper} et al., Invent. Math. 118, No. 1, 47--84 (1994; Zbl 0842.57013)] to \(\ell\)-component links introduced by \textit{X. Zhang} [J. Knot Theory Ramifications 15, No. 3, 279--287 (2006; Zbl 1089.57014)].