A conjecture of Zagier and the value distribution of quantum modular forms

arXiv2110.07407MaRDI QIDQ6380340FDOQ6380340

Authors: Christoph Aistleitner, Bence Borda 

Publication date: 14 October 2021

Abstract: In his influential paper on quantum modular forms, Zagier developed a conjectural framework describing the behavior of certain quantum knot invariants under the action of the modular group on their argument. More precisely, when $J_{K,0}$ denotes the colored Jones polynomial of a knot $K$, Zagier's modularity conjecture describes the asymptotics of the quotient $J_{K,0}(e^{2piigamma(x)})/J_{K,0}(e^{2piix})$ as $xoinfty$ along rationals with bounded denominators, where $gammainmathrmSL(2,mathbbZ)$. This problem is most accessible for the figure-eight knot $4_1$, when the colored Jones polynomial has an explicit expression in terms of the $q$-Pochhammer symbol. Zagier also conjectured that the function $h(x)=log(J_{4_1,0}(e^{2piix})/J_{4_1,0}(e^{2pii/x}))$ can be extended to a function on $mathbbR$ which is continuous at irrationals. In the present paper, we prove Zagier's continuity conjecture for all irrationals which have unbounded partial quotients in their continued fraction expansion. In particular, the continuity conjecture holds almost everywhere on the real line. We also establish a smooth approximation of $h$, uniform over all rationals, in accordance with the modularity conjecture. As an application, we find the limit distribution (after a suitable centering and rescaling) of $log(J_{4_1,0}(e^{2piix}))$, when $x$ ranges over all reduced rationals in $(0,1)$ with denominator at most $N$, as $Noinfty$, thereby confirming a conjecture of Bettin and Drappeau.

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Central limit and other weak theorems (60F05) Continued fractions and generalizations (11J70) Trigonometric and exponential sums (general theory) (11L03) Inequalities for trigonometric functions and polynomials (26D05) Finite-type and quantum invariants, topological quantum field theories (TQFT) (57K16)

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