Singular intersections of subgroups and character varieties (Q6046109)

The paper under review proves that the character variety of the generic Dehn twist of a \(3\)-manifold \(M\) with toric boundary satisfying some technical assumptions is reduced and has dimension zero. This is done by relating the aforementioned property of the character variety to the transversality of the intersection between the curve defined by the so-called \(A\)-polynomial of \(M\) and the algebraic subgroups of \(\mathbb{G}_m^2\). As such, the aforementioned problem is related to questions of Zilber-Pink type. In particular, the authors use work of \textit{P. Habegger} [Math. Ann. 342, No. 2, 449--466 (2008; Zbl 1168.14019)] to give an effective version of the aforementioned theorem, which bounds explicitly the height of the finite number of rationals which correspond to Dehn twists whose character variety is not reduced or not zero dimensional. Finally, the authors show how their geometric considerations allow them to go beyond problems of Zilber-Pink type. More precisely, Theorem 1.5 of the paper under review shows that for every irreducible algebraic curve \(C\) inside \(\mathbb{G}_m^2\), which is not the translate of a subtorus by a torsion points, there exist at most a finite number of points \(P \in C(\overline{\mathbb{Q}})\) such that there exists a one-dimensional subgroup \(G \subseteq \mathbb{G}_m^2\) and a torsion point \(\zeta \in (\overline{\mathbb{Q}}^\times)^2_\text{tors}\) with the property that \(P \in \zeta \cdot G\) and that the tangent lines of \(C\) and \(\zeta \cdot G\) at \(P\) coincide. To conclude, the paper under review provides interesting links between low-dimensional topology and number theory, which will certainly be source of inspiration for future research.