Octahedral coordinates from the Wirtinger presentation (Q6979162)

Let \(\rho\) be a representation of a knot group (or more generally, the fundamental group of a tangle complement) into \(SL_2(\mathbb C)\) expressed in terms of the Wirtinger generators of a diagram \(D\). The representation \(\rho\) induces a hyperbolic structure on the complement of \(D\).\N\NIn this paper the author gives a direct algebraic formula for determining the geometric parameters of the octahedral decomposition induced by this structure. The characterization depends only on \(\rho\) and \(D\), not the details of the triangulation. The formula gives an explicit criterion for whether a representation corresponds to a smooth critical point of the diagram's Neumann-Zagier-Yokota potential function. This question is relevant to the saddle-point method used in most approaches to the Volume Conjecture.