Eigenvalue varieties of Brunnian links (Q2398911)

Eigenvalue varieties are a generalization of the \(A\)-polynomial of knots in \(S^3\) to manifolds with nonconnected toric boundary. If the boundary of the \(3\)-manifold \(M\) consists of \(n\) tori, the associated eigenvalue variety is an algebraic subspace of \(\mathbb{C}^{2n}\) corresponding to the closure of the peripheral eigenvalues taken by representations of \(\pi_1M\) in \(SL_2\mathbb{C}\). In the same way as any \(A\)-polynomial is divisible by the \(A\)-polynomial of the unknot, any eigenvalue variety \({\mathcal E}(M)\) contains components \({\mathcal E}^{red}(M)\) corresponding to reducible characters. Components of \({\mathcal E}^{red}(M)\) have maximal dimension and any other component of \({\mathcal E}(M)\) with maximal dimension is called a nontrivially maximal component of \({\mathcal E}(M)\) . The question of classifying \(3\)-manifolds \(M\) for which \({\mathcal E}(M)\) contains a nontrivially maximal component, or even determining whether non trivial exteriors of links in \(S^3\) have this property remains open. In this article, the author answers this matter for a family of links in \(S^3\). He proves that the eigenvalue variety of any nontrivial non-Hopf Brunnian link contains a non trivially maximal component.