Degree of \(L^2\)-Alexander torsion for 3-manifolds (Q517429)

The author's abstract describes very well what is presented in the paper. From the summary: ``For an irreducible orientable compact \(3\)-manifold \(N\) with empty or incompressible toral boundary, the full \(L^2\)-Alexander torsion \(\tau^{(2)}(N,\phi)(t)\) associated to any real first cohomology class \(\phi\) of \(N\) is represented by a function of a positive real variable \(t\). The paper shows that \(\tau^{(2)}(N,\phi)\) is continuous, everywhere positive, and asymptotically monomial in both ends. Moreover, the degree of \(\tau^{(2)}(N,\phi)\) equals the Thurston norm of \(\phi\). The result confirms a conjecture of \textit{J. Dubois} et al. [in: Introduction to modern mathematics. Somerville, MA: International Press; Beijing: Higher Education Press. 143--169 (2015; Zbl 1356.57014)] and addresses a question of \textit{W. Li} and \textit{W. Zhang} [in: Differential geometry and physics. Proceedings of the 23rd international conference of differential geometric methods in theoretical physics, Tianjin, China, August 20--26, 2005. Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific. 303--312 (2006; Zbl 1131.57015)]. Associated to any admissible homomorphism \(\gamma:\pi_1(N)\to G\), the \(L^2\)-Alexander torsion \(\tau^{(2)}(N,\gamma,\phi)\) is shown to be continuous and everywhere positive provided that \(G\) is residually finite and \((N,\gamma)\) is weakly acyclic. In this case, a generalized degree can be assigned to \(\tau^{(2)}(N,\gamma,\phi)\). Moreover, the generalized degree is bounded by the Thurston norm of \(\phi\)''.