The spectra of volume and determinant densities of links (Q314340)

The volume density of a hyperbolic link is the ratio of the hyperbolic volume to the crossing number. A strict upper bound for volume density is \(v_{\mathrm{oct}}\), the volume of a regular hyperbolic octahedron. \textit{A. Champanerkar}, \textit{I. Kofman} and \textit{J. Purcell} [``Geometrically and diagrammatically maximal knots'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1411.7915}] have exhibited a sequence of alternating links whose volume density tends to \(v_{\mathrm{oct}}\). In this paper the author constructs sequences of hyperbolic links with volume density tending to any \(x\in[0,v_{\mathrm{oct}}]\). The determinant density of a link is a (scaled) ratio of the logarithm of the determinant of the link to the crossing number. The author also shows that there are sequences of hyperbolic links with determinant density tending to any \(x\in[0,v_{\mathrm{oct}}]\). In this case it is not known whether \(v_{\mathrm{oct}}\) is an upper bound. The proofs of the two results are similar. First the author constructs sequences of links for which the value tends to \(v_{\mathrm{oct}}\) and for which it tends to \(0\). Then these links are combined in suitable proportions to achieve any limit between these two values. The constructions given also include examples showing that not all the hypotheses of the result of Champanerkar, Kofman and Purcell are necessary.