The average signature of graph links (Q494982)

Let \(L\) be a link in \(S^3\) and \(A\) its Seifert matrix. The Tristram-Levine signature of \(L\) is the piecewise constant function \(\sigma_L : S^1 \to \mathbb Z\) given by \(\sigma_L(z)=\) signature of the hermitian form \((1-z)A+ (1-\bar z)A^T\). In this paper the authors consider the average signature of \(L\) defined by \(\bar \sigma(L) = \int_0^1 \sigma_L(e^{2\pi i x}) dx\), and compute it for graph links in \(S^3\). Recall that a graph link \(L\) is a link in a graph manifold that is given by a graph \(\Gamma\) in the plane such that the multiplicity of each arrowhead vertex is \(1\), due to a construction by Eisenbud and von Neumann. With the assumption that at every node of \(\Gamma\) at most \(2\) adjacent weights are different from \(1\), the graph manifold is \(S^3\), and \(L\) is a graph link in \(S^3\). Using overhead vertices, nodes, leaves, edges, and arrowheads of \(\Gamma\), the authors define a rational number valued function \(S(\Gamma)\), which is used to compute the average signature of \(L\). It is proved, using von Neumann's algorithm and the reciprocality law of Dedekind sums, that if \(L\) is a graph link in \(S^3\), which is neither the unkot nor the Hopf link, and with \(\Gamma\) an underlying graph satisfying a certain minimality condition, then \(\bar \sigma(L) =-\frac{1}{3} S(\Gamma)\).