Random walks and the colored Jones function

Abstract: It can be conjectured that the colored Jones function of a knot can be computed in terms of counting paths on the graph of a planar projection of a knot. On the combinatorial level, the colored Jones function can be replaced by its weight system. We give two curious formulas for the weight system of a colored Jones function: one in terms of the permanent of a matrix associated to a chord diagram, and another in terms of counting paths of intersecting chords.

Review text

The colored Jones function is a sequence of Jones polynomials which is determined by (and determines) the Jones polynomial of a knot and its parallels. It is defined as a formal 2-parameter power series \(\sum_{n,m=0}^{\infty}a_{n,m}h^n\lambda^m\). \textit{P. M. Melvin} and \textit{H. R. Morton} [Commun. Math. Phys. 169, 501-520 (1995; Zbl 0845.57007)] and \textit{L. Rozansky} [Commun. Math. Phys. 175, 297-318 (1996; Zbl 0872.57011)] independently conjectured a relation between the diagonal term \(\sum_{n} a_{n,n}h^n\lambda^n\) of that function and the Alexander polynomial of the knot under consideration. Several other authors worked on that conjecture, among which are \textit{D. Bar-Natan} and \textit{S. Garoufalidis} [Invent. Math. 125, 103-133 (1996; Zbl 0855.57004)], who reduced it to a statement about the combinatorial weight systems of knots. Weight systems were introduced by Bar-Natan in his study of the Vassiliev knot invariants. They are purely combinatorial objects which, as the authors say, may be thought of as an infinitesimal version of the knot invariant. Using this approach together with combinatorial Lie algebras methods, Bar-Natan and Garoufalidis proved the Melvin-Morton-Rozanski conjecture for all weight systems that come from semisimple Lie algebras, see the above paper of D. Bar-Natan and S. Garoufalidis. In the same paper, they gave formulas for the weight systems \(W_J\) of the colored Jones polynomial and of its leading order term \(W_{JJ}\) in terms of the intersection matrix of an associated chord diagram. In particular, they proved that \(W_{JJ}\) is equal to the permanent of the intersection matrix of the chord diagram. In the same paper, they asked for a better understanding of the \(W_{J}\) weight system, especially one that offers control over the subdiagonal terms. In the paper under review, the authors obtain two combinatorial formulas for \(W_{J}\) that answer these questions. These formulas support the conjecture that the colored Jones polynomial is a counting of random walks.

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