A polynomial invariant for veering triangulations (Q6192284)

Veering triangulations of cusped oriented hyperbolic 3-manifolds were introduced by \textit{I. Agol} [Contemp. Math. 560, 1--17 (2011; Zbl 1335.57026)], as a means to canonically triangulate certain pseudo-Anosov mapping tori, and are a special case of layered ideal triangulations (built by layering tetrahedra on an ideal triangulation of the punctured surface); \textit{C. D. Hodgson} et al. [Geom. Topol. 15, No. 4, 2073--2089 (2011; Zbl 1246.57034)] generalized veering triangulations for more general classes of (nonlayered) ideal triangulations. In the present paper, the authors introduce a polynomial invariant \(V_\tau \in \mathbb Z[H_1(M)/\mathrm{torsion}]\) associated to a veering triangulation \(\tau\) of a 3-manifold \(M\) which generalizes \textit{C. T. McMullen}'s Teichmüller polynomial from the fibered setting [Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. (4) 33, No. 4, 519--560 (2000; Zbl 1013.57010)]. ``In the special case where the triangulation is layered, i.e. comes from a fibration, \(V_\tau\) recovers the Teichmüller polynomial of the fibered face canonically associated to \(\tau\). Via Dehn filling, this gices a combinatorial description of the Teichmüller polynomial for any hyperbolic fibered 3-manifold.'' ``For a general veering triangulation \(\tau\), we show that the surface carried by \(\tau\) determines a cone in homology that is dual to its cone of positive closed transversals. Moreover, we prove that this is \textit{equal} to the cone over a (generally non-fibered) face of the Thurston norm ball, and that \(\tau\) computes the norm on this cone in a precise sense. We also give a combinatorial description of \(V_\tau\) in terms of the \textit{flow graph} for \(\tau\) and its Perron polynomial. This perspective allows us to characterize when a veering triangulation comes from a fibration, and more generally to compute the face of the Thurston norm ball determined by \(\tau\).''