On the twisted Alexander polynomial for metabelian representations into SL₂( C)

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Publication:387219



Abstract: We observe the twisted Alexander polynomial for metabelian representations of knot groups into SL(2,C) and study relations to the characterizations of metabelian representations in the character varieties. We give a factorization of the twisted Alexander polynomial for irreducible metabelian representations with the adjoint action on sl(2,C), in which the Alexander polynomial and the twisted Alexander polynomial appear as factors. We also show several explicit examples.


Let \(K\) be a knot in \(S^3\), and denote \(\pi\) for \(\pi_1(S^3-K)\). Assume \(\rho\in \mathrm{Hom}(\pi,\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{C}))\) is irreducible. The group \(\pi\) is finitely presented as \(\langle g_1,\dots,g_k\;|\;r_1,\dots,r_{k-1}\rangle\) (Wirtinger presentation), and its Abelianization \(\pi/[\pi,\pi]\) is \(\langle t\rangle\cong \mathbb{Z}\); where \(t\) is a multiplicative generator. Define \(\Phi:\mathbb{Z}[\pi]\to \mathrm{End}(\mathbb{C}[t^{\pm t}]\times \mathbb{C}[t^{\pm t}] )\) by \(\sum a_i\gamma_i\mapsto \sum a_i\alpha(\gamma_i)\rho(\gamma_i)\) where \(\alpha:\pi\to \langle t\rangle\) is the Abelianization map. In these terms, \textit{M. Wada} [Topology 33, No. 2, 241--256 (1994; Zbl 0822.57006)] defined the \textit{twisted Alexander polynomial} as \(\det\left(\Phi(\partial r_i/\partial g_j)_{1\leq i,j\leq k-1}\right)/\det(\Phi(g_k-1));\) assuming \(\alpha(g_k)\not=1\) and where \(\partial r_i/\partial g_j\) are the Fox derivatives. It does not depend on the presentation, or the conjugacy class of \(\rho\). Similarly one can define the twisted Alexander polynomial for \(\mathrm{Ad}_\rho\). A representation is called \textit{metabelian} if \(\rho([\pi,\pi])\) is Abelian. An irreducible metabelian representation \(\rho\) is \textit{longitude-regular} if and only if there exist \(v\in \mathfrak{sl}_2(\mathbb{C})\) such that \(v\otimes \lambda\) is non-trivial in \(H_1(S^3-K;\mathrm{Ad}_\rho)\), where \(\lambda\) is a longitude in the boundary torus of \(S^3-K\). The main result in this paper gives an explicit factorization of the twisted Alexander polynomial of \(\mathrm{Ad}_\rho\) for irreducible metabelian longitude-regular representations \(\rho\).











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