On the distribution of Alexander polynomials in certain families of closed braids (Q6166633)

To study the Alexander polynomial of a \textit{link} in \(S^3\) (i.e. the branch locus of a \(3\)-manifold which is a branched cover of \(S^3\)), one imitates Iwasawa theory and investigates for some prime \(p>2\) a \(p\)-adic completion to obtain \(\lambda\)- and \(\mu\)-invariants. Every link arises from some closed braid, and the latter is much more convenient to investigate. For \(n \ge 2\), let \(B_n\) denote the braid group of \(n\) strings with generators \(\sigma_i\), \(1 \le i \le n-1\), and \(\mathcal F_n \subset B_n\) the subset of all (isotopy classes of) braids of the form \(\sigma_1^{k_1} \cdots \sigma_{n-1}^{k_{n-1}}\). The point is that for braids of \(\mathcal F_n\) one can explicitly give the Alexander polynomial of the corresponding link, and the main result of this paper is stated for braids of \(\mathcal F_n\): the Alexander polynomial is non-zero, and for each prime \(p>2\) the \(\mu\)-invariant equals \(0\). Furthermore, the density of those elements of \(\mathcal F_n\), whose \(\lambda\)-invariant has a fixed value, exists and is explicitly given. Half of the paper is devoted to exhibiting some analoga between algebraic topology and number theory, to a discussion of the background material for links and braids, and to the explanation of notions and existing results. In the second half, propositions and lemmas are proved, which lead to the main result (Theorem 1.1).