The twisted Reidemeister torsion of an iterated torus knot (Q670149)

This paper computes the Reidemeister torsion for iterated torus knots with coefficients twisted by the adjoint of representations in \(SL_2(\mathbb C)\). This is motivated by the volume conjecture. The simplicial volume of iterated torus knots is zero, but, in general, the asymptotic behavior of the \(N\)-colored Jones polynomial (evaluated at \(z/N\) for certain complex numbers \(z\)) is conjectured to involve other terms, as the Chern-Simons invariant and Reidemeister torsion. The knots considered here are \((2,p)\)-cables on \((2,q)\)-torus knots. For those knots, in [Acta Math. Vietnam. 39, No. 4, 649--710 (2014; Zbl 1348.57028)] the author obtained already an asymptotic formula involving Chern-Simons invariants and some other quantities, and in some cases it was established that those quantities are Reidemeister torsions. Here it is completely proved that those quantities are Reidemeister torsions of the adjoint representations of these knots in \(SL_2(\mathbb C)\). The paper is well written. It starts with an overview of the volume conjecture. Then it describes the representations in \(SL_2(\mathbb C)\) of these knots groups and computes explicitly the Reidemeister torsion twisted by the adjoint of the representations, in a well organized and clear way.