A relationship between the non-acyclic Reidemeister torsion and a zero of the acyclic Reidemeister torsion (Q2482863)

The paper is concerned with the Reidemeister torsion of a knot exterior associated to a non-acyclic local system, see \textit{J. Milnor} [Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 72, 358--426 (1966; Zbl 0147.23104)] and \textit{V. G. Turaev} [Introduction to combinatorial torsions, Lectures in Mathematics, ETH Zürich, Basel, Birkhäuser (2001; Zbl 0970.57001)] for definitions. The main result expresses the non-acyclic Reidemeister torsion of a knot in a homology \(3\)-sphere as a coefficient of the twisted Alexander polynomial of the knot. As it turns out, the twisted Alexander polynomial is nothing but the acyclic Reidemeister torsion of the knot, as shown by \textit{T. Kitano} [Pac. J. Math. 174, No. 2, 431--442 (1996; Zbl 0863.57001)]. Thus, perhaps surprisingly, the non-acyclic torsion proves to be related to the acyclic one. Then a Fox calculus procedure is given to calculate the non-acyclic Reidemeister torsion of a classical knot exterior. As an application, the non-acyclic torsion of \(2\)-bridge knots associated to \(SU(2)\)-representations is investigated.