The \(L^2\)-Alexander torsion of 3-manifolds (Q2826650)

An \(L^2\)-Alexander invariant is a function \(\tau^{(2)}(N, \phi, \gamma) : [0, \infty) \to [0, \infty)\) associated to a triple \(N, \phi, \gamma\) where \(N\) is a compact aspherical 3-manifold, \(\gamma : \pi_1(N) \to G\) a morphism and \(\phi\in H^1(N, \mathbb R)\) the pullback of a nonzero cohomology class of \(G\). Its value at \(t\) is defined as the \(L^2\)-torsion of the \(\pi_1(N)\)-complex obtained from the cover associated to \(\gamma\) and twisted by \(e^{t\phi}\). As such it is very hard to compute in general unless \(G\) is a virtually abelian group. On the other hand it is a very powerful invariant: for example it is known that it detects the trivial knot [\textit{F. Ben Aribi}, Ann. Sc. Norm. Super. Pisa, Cl. Sci. (5) 15, 683--708 (2016; Zbl 1345.57006)], and various other small knots.NEWLINENEWLINEIn this paper the authors study the asymptotic behaviour of \(\tau^{(2)}\) and prove in some cases that, suitably normalised, for large enough \(t\) it is equal to \(t^{x_N(\phi)}\) where \(x_N\) is the Thurston norm on cohomology. By a symmetry result due to the authors this also implies that \(\tau^{(2)} = 1\) in a neighbourhood of 0. The result in full generality has been proven in recent work of \textit{Y. Liu} [``Degree of \(L^2\)-Alexander torsion for 3-manifolds'', to appear in Inv. Math., Preprint, {\url arXiv:1509.08866}], and a slightly weaker version by the two last authors of the present paper [``The \(L^2\)-torsion function and the Thurston norm of 3-manifolds'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1510.00264}].NEWLINENEWLINEThe first case they deal with is that of graph manifolds, building on computations of \textit{G. Herrmann} for Seifert manifolds [``The \(L^2\)-Alexander torsion for Seifert fiber spaces'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1602.08768}]. In this case they compute the function for all \(t \in [0, \infty)\). The second case is when \(\phi\) is fibered, that is it is integral and the associated infinite cyclic cover is homeomorphic to a product \(\mathbb R \times \Sigma\) where \(\Sigma\) is a surface. In this case the asymptotic behaviour is proven to hold at least outside of an interval \([1/h, h]\) where \(h > 1\) is a dynamical invariant of the mapping class of \(\Sigma\) associated to the fibration of \(M\).