A diagrammatic approach to the AJ conjecture (Q2200772)

The AJ-conjecture relates the colored Jones polynomial with the character variety of a knot. The sequence of colored Jones polynomials of a knot \(K\) is \(q\)-holonomic, namely it satisfies a linear recursive relation. This relation is encoded by a non-commutative polynomial on 3-variables \(\hat A_K\). On the other hand the \(A\)-polynomial \(A_K\) is the two variable polynomial defined by the variety of characters of \(K\) restricted to the peripheral group, after removing the abelian component. The result of replacing \(q=1\) at \(\hat A_K\) is a commutative 2-variable polynomial; the AJ conjecture claims that this polynomial and \(A_k\) have the same irreducible factors (after some change of variable), namely they define the same planar curve. The current paper approaches the AJ-conjecture by means of diagrams. The authors define a version of the \(\hat A\)-polynomial that could depend on a diagram \(D\), \(\hat A^c_D\), also a non-commutative polynomial in 3-variables. It is conjectured that \(\hat A^c_D\) does not depend on the diagram but just on the knot \(K\). As it is not yet known that \(\hat A^c_D\) is independent of the diagram, \(\hat A^c_K\) is defined as the left gcd of all \(\hat A^c_D\) for all diagrams \(D\) representing \(K\). The main result is that (a) \(\hat A_K\) divides \(\hat A^c_K\), and (b) irreducible factors of the \(A\)-polynomial \(A_K\) are also irreducible factors of the result of replacing \(q=1\) at \(\hat A^c_K\) (after some change of variable). The proof builds on the octahedral decomposition of the knot complement minus two points from a diagram \(D\), and uses a theorem proved by \textit{H. Kim} et al. [Geom. Dedicata 197, 123--172 (2018; Zbl 1411.57002)] namely that the gluing equations of these octahedra yield \(A_K\), the \(A\)-polynomial of the knot \(K\).