Representations of knot groups into SL_n(C) and twisted Alexander polynomials
Let \(\Gamma\) be the fundamental group of the complement of a knot in \(S^3\). Consider the character variety that parametrizes (semisimple) representations of \(\Gamma\) into \(SL_n({\mathbb C})\), denoted \(X(\Gamma,SL_n({\mathbb C}))\). This paper studies the question of when a reducible representation can be deformed into an irreducible one. Take \(\alpha:\Gamma \to SL_a({\mathbb C})\) and \(\beta:\Gamma \to SL_b({\mathbb C})\) two irreducible and infinitesimally regular representations, with \(n=a+b\). Here infinitesimally regular means that \(H^1(\Gamma, {\mathfrak sl}_a({\mathbb C}_{Ad \alpha})={\mathbb C}^{a-1}\), which implies in particular that \(\alpha\) defines a smooth point of \(X(\Gamma,SL_a({\mathbb C}))\). For a given \(\lambda\in {\mathbb C}^*\), consider the representation \(\rho_\lambda= \lambda^{b\varphi}\alpha \oplus\lambda^{a\varphi}\beta\), where \(\varphi:\Gamma \to \mathbb Z\) is the abelianization map. Associated to the representation \(\alpha\otimes \beta^*\) on \(M_{a\times b}({\mathbb C})\), we have twisted Alexander polynomials \(\Delta_i^+(t)=\Delta^{\alpha\otimes\beta^*}_i(t) \in {\mathbb C}[t^{\pm 1}]\). The twisted Alexander polynomial \(\Delta^V_i(t)\) is essentially the generator of the ideal of relations on the cohomology module \(H_i(X_\infty, V)\), where \(X_\infty\) is the infinite cyclic covering of \(X\), and \(t\) is the Deck action on it. Analogously we have \(\Delta_i^-(t)=\Delta^{\beta\otimes \alpha^*}_i(t)\). The main results of the paper are the following. First, if \(\rho_\lambda\) can be deformed to an irreducible representation, then \[ \Delta_1^+(\lambda^n)=\Delta_1^-(\lambda^{-n})=0. \] Second, if \(\Delta_0^+(\lambda^n) \neq 0\) and \(\lambda^n\) is a simple root of \(\Delta_1^+(t)\), then \(\rho_\lambda\) can be deformed to irreducible representations. Actually, under these hypothesis, the local structure of the character variety around \(\rho_\lambda\) is described very explicitly. There are two components of dimension \(n-1\), intersecting transverselly along a subvariety of dimension \(n-2\). One of the components consists of characters of irreducible representations and the other one consists of characters of reducible ones. The paper ends with the descripiton of the \(SL_3({\mathbb C})\)-character variety of the trefoil knot exterior. This is extended to the case of the exterior of a general torus knot in [\textit{V. Muñoz} and \textit{J. Porti}, ``Geometry of the \(SL(3,{\mathbb C})\)-character variety of torus knots, Algebraic and Geometric Topology, 2015, to appear, arXiv:1409.4784].
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