Knot cabling and the degree of the colored Jones polynomial (Q887794)

For a knot \(K\) in the \(3\)-sphere, Jones slopes of \(K\) are cluster points of the sets consisting of the highest and lowest degrees of the colored Jones polynomials. The slope conjecture claims that any Jones slope is a boundary slope for every knot in the \(3\)-sphere. This conjecture was proposed by \textit{S. Garoufalidis} [Quantum Topol. 2, No. 1, 43--69 (2011; Zbl 1228.57004)], and he proved it for alternating knots, torus knots, non-alternating knots up to nine crossings, and \((-2,3,p)\)-pretzel knots. Since then, the conjecture has been confirmed for several classes of knots, such as adequate knots. The paper under review examines the behavior of the boundary slopes and the Jones slopes under the cabling operation, and proves the slope conjecture for the iterated cables of adequate knots, including iterated torus knots. In addition, the paper proposes the strong slope conjecture which claims that any Jones slope is related to a certain essential surface. This stronger conjecture is confirmed for the iterated cables of adequate knots.