Twisting, ladder graphs, and A-polynomials (Q6163770)

The A-polynomial was defined by \textit{D. Cooper} et al. [Invent. Math. 118, No. 1, 47--84 (1994; Zbl 0842.57013)]. The A-polynomial is a very powerful 2-variable polynomial invariant of knots which detects (most) boundary slopes of incompressible surfaces in the knot complement and which is conjecturally related to the colored Jones polynomial (via the AJ conjecture of \textit{S. Garoufalidis} [Geom. Topol. Monogr. 7, 291--309 (2004; Zbl 1080.57014)]). The polynomial is difficult to compute; full computations have been done only for knots with small crossing numbers and for some infinite families with manageable fundamental groups. In recent work by \textit{J. A. Howie} [``A-polynomials, Ptolemy equations and Dehn filling'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2002.10356}], the authors relate the computations for A-polynomials to the exchange relations of cluster algebras, using this to simplify calculations of A-polynomials for knots related by twisting. In the paper reviewed here, the author exploits this relationship further to extend the results of Howie, Matthews, and Purcell [\textit{J. A. Howie} et al., ``A-polynomials, Ptolemy equations and Dehn filling'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2002.10356}], leading to new results related to cluster algebras and computations of A-polynomials for a family of twisted torus knots.