arXiv research

We prove that any Bonahon-Siebenmann family of Conway spheres for a hyperbolic link is associated to an ideal point of the character variety of the link.

Compact character varieties of punctured spheres are proven.

We study the (relative) SL(2,C) character varieties of the four-holed sphere and the action of the mapping class group on it. We describe a domain of discontinuity for this action, and, in the case of real characters, show that this domain of discontinuity may be non-empty on the components where the relative euler cla…

For any complex affine reductive group G and a fixed choice of maximal compact subgroup K, we show that the G-character variety of a free group strongly deformation retracts to the corresponding K-character space, which is a real semi-algebraic set. Combining this with constructive invariant theory and classical topolo…

Let K be a knot in an integral homology 3-sphere and let B denote the 2-fold branched cover of the integral homology sphere branched along K. We construct a map from the slice of characters with trace free along meridians in the SL(2, C)-character variety of the knot exterior to the SL(2, C)-character variety of 2-fold…

New surgery obstructions found in simple character varieties.

Classifies finite orbits of mapping class group action on character varieties.

We give a complete description of finite braid group orbits in Aff(C)-character varieties of the punctured Riemann sphere. This is performed thanks to a coalescence procedure and to the theory of finite complex reflection groups. We then derive consequences in the theory of differential equations. These concern algebra…

Study character varieties for 3-punctured sphere group representations in PU(2,1).

We use Bonahon-Wong's trace map to study character varieties of the once-punctured torus and of the 4-punctured sphere. We clarify a relationship with cluster algebra associated with ideal triangulations of surfaces, and we show that the Goldman Poisson algebra of loops on surfaces is recovered from the Poisson structu…

The paper studies compactifications of SL(2,C) character varieties for punctured surfaces.

A natural family of affine cubic surfaces arises from SL(2)-characters of the 4-holed sphere and the 1-holed torus. The ideal locus is a tritangent plane which is generic in the sense that the cubic curve at infinity consists of three lines pairwise intersecting in three double points. We show that every affine cubic s…

We will give several descriptions of some basic examples of wild character varieties, including a discussion of links to work of Sibuya, Calabi and Euler, amongst others.

Study on skein module dimensions at irreducible representations.

We study the (relative) SL(2,C) character varieties of the three-holed projective plane and the action of the mapping class group on them. We describe a domain of discontinuity for this action, which strictly contains the set of primitive stable representations defined by Minsky, and also the set of convex-cocompact ch…

We prove that some relative character varieties of the fundamental group of a punctured sphere into the Hermitian Lie groups $\mathrm{SU}(p,q)$ admit compact connected components. The representations in these components have several counter-intuitive properties. For instance, the image of any simple closed curve is an …

For a fibered knot in the 3-sphere the twisted Alexander polynomial associated to an SL(2,C)-character is known to be monic. It is conjectured that for a nonfibered knot there is a curve component of the SL(2,C)-character variety containing only finitely many characters whose twisted Alexander polynomials are monic, i.…

We show that the $(4,5)$- and $(5,6)$-torus knots admit ghost characters. Consequently, these knots provide counterexamples to Ng's conjecture, which proposes an isomorphism between the complexification of degree $0$ abelian knot contact homology and the coordinate ring of the character variety of the $2$-fold branched…

Study $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$ connections on Seifert-fibered spaces using gauge theory.

We study relations between special elliptic isometries in the complex hyperbolic plane. Relations of lengths 2, 3, and 4 are fully classified. Some relative SU(2,1)-character varieties of the quadruply punctured sphere are described and applied to the study of length 5 relations.

We exhibit the traceless $SU(2)$ character variety of a 6-punctured 2-sphere as a 2-fold branched cover of ${\mathbb{C}}P^3$, branched over the singular Kummer surface, with the branch locus in $R(S^2,6)$ corresponding to the binary dihedral representations. This follows from an analysis of the map induced on $SU(2)$ c…

We study small Seifert possibly chiral cosmetic surgeries on not necessarily null-homologous knot in rational homology spheres. Using $PSL_2(\mathbb{C})$-character variety theory we give a sharp bound on the number of slopes producing the same small Seifert manifold if the ambient manifold satisfies some representation…

We give counterexamples to a question of Bowditch that if a non-elementary type-preserving representation $ρ:π_1(Σ_{g,n})\rightarrow PSL(2;\mathbb R)$ of a punctured surface group sends every non-peripheral simple closed curve to a hyperbolic element, then must $ρ$ be Fuchsian. The counterexamples come from relative Eu…

Develops analogs of character varieties for algebraic correspondences, proving boundedness and compactifications.

We find explicit models for the PSL(2,C)- and SL(2,C)-character varieties of the fundamental groups of complements in S^3 of an infinite family of two-bridge knots that contains the twist knots. We compute the genus of the components of these character varieties, and deduce upper bounds on the degree of the associated …

The paper shows BNSR-invariants of McCool groups are either dense or empty.

Rigidity of mapping class group on surfaces with punctures.

Researchers prove positivity of skein algebra structure constants for specific surfaces.

Study character varieties of tangles to map immersed curves in the pillowcase.

Holomorphic map connects Hitchin components to character varieties.

New method to compute tangle sums in character varieties.

This paper proves a theorem about Dehn surgery using a new theorem about PSL(2, C) character varieties. Confirming a conjecture of Boyer and Zhang, this paper shows that a small hyperbolic knot in a homotopy sphere having a non-trivial cyclic slope r has an incompressible surface with non-integer boundary slope strictl…

For two complex vector bundles admitting a homomorphism, whose singularity locates in the disjoint union of some odd--dimensional spheres, we give a formula to compute the relative Chern characteristic number of these two complex vector bundles. In particular, for a spin manifold admitting some sphere bundle structure,…

Study shows mapping class group action is ergodic on specific representations.

Study the geometry of torus link character varieties, finding unexpected relations.

We study the structure underlying Ng's conjecture, which relates the degree $0$ abelian knot contact homology of a knot $K$ to the coordinate ring of the $SL_2(\mathbf{C})$-character variety $X(Σ_2 K)$ of the $2$-fold branched cover of the $3$-sphere branched along $K$. Our approach is based on the study of (meridional…

The purpose of this note is to announce complete answers to the following questions. (1) For an essential simple loop on a 2-bridge sphere in a 2-bridge link complement, when is it null-homotopic in the link complement? (2) For two distinct essential simple loops on a 2-bridge sphere in a 2-bridge link complement, when…

In this paper, we prove that the Reidemeister torsion twisted by the adjoint representation, which is considered as a 1-form, on the SU(2)-character variety of a knot exterior is invariant under mutation along a Conway sphere.

Given a knot K in an integral homology sphere with exterior N_K, there is a natural action of the cyclic group Z/n on the space of SL(n,C) representations of the knot group π_1(N_K), and this induces an action on the SL(n,C) character variety. We identify the fixed points of this action in terms of characters of metabe…

We give an extension of Fox's formula of the Alexander polynomial for double branched covers over the three-sphere. Our formula provides the Reidemeister torsion of a double branched cover along a knot for a non-trivial one dimensional representation by the product of two factors derived from the knot group. One of the…

Algorithm describes Fourier transform of Stokes data at infinity.

We show that the (4,5)-torus knot $T_{4,5}$ admits exactly one ghost character. We then show that this ghost character provides the following two important results. (1) It is known that for any knot $K$ every (meridionally) trace-free $\SL_2(\C)$-representation of the knot group $G(K)$ yields an $\SL_2(\C)$-representat…

We describe the action of the automorphism group of the complex cubic x^2+y^2+z^2-xyz-2 on the homology of its fibers. This action includes the action of the mapping class group of a punctured torus on the subvarieties of its SL(2,C) character variety given by fixing the trace of the peripheral element (so-called "rela…

We derive a simple closed formula for the SL(2,C) Casson invariant for Seifert fibered homology 3-spheres using the correspondence between SL(2,C) character varieties and moduli spaces of parabolic Higgs bundles of rank two. These results are then used to deduce the invariant for Dehn surgeries on twist knots by combin…

The paper solves a geometric P=W conjecture for SL(2,C) using Thurston's compactification.

New surfaces found in 5D space.

We define the slope of a colored link in an integral homology sphere, associated to admissible characters on the link group. Away from a certain singular locus, the slope is a rational function which can be regarded as a multivariate generalization of the Kojima--Yamasaki $η$-function. It is the ratio of two Conway pot…

Consider the exterior M of a hyperbolic knot lying in a closed, connected, orientable 3-manifold. Culler and Shalen defined norm on H_1(dM;R) using the SL(2,C) character variety of pi_1(M). The Culler-Shalen norm encodes many topological properties of M; in particular it provides information about Dehn fillings of M. T…