arXiv research

The study examines dynamics on SU(2)-representation varieties for surfaces and non-orientable surfaces.

Character varieties of knot groups into SU(3) are stratified and analyzed.

Researchers describe character varieties for Hopf links, proving geometric properties.

Given an abelian group $A$ and a Lie group $G$, we construct a bilinear pairing from $A\timesπ_1({\mathcal R})$ to $π_1(G)$, where $\mathcal R$ is a subvariety of the variety of representations $A\to G$. In the case where $A$ is the peripheral subgroup of a torus or two-bridge knot group, $G=S^1$ and $\mathcal R$ is a …

In this paper, we address the issue of quaternionic Toledo invariant to study the character variety of two dimensional complex hyperbolic uniform lattices into $SU(n,2)$. We construct four distinct representations to prove that the character variety contains at least four distinct components. We also address the existe…

Study of SU(2,1) character varieties on one-holed torus.

Given a 2-stranded tangle in a $\ZZ/2$ homology ball, $T\subset Y$, we investigate the character variety $R(Y,T)$ of conjugacy classes of traceless SU(2) representations of $π_1(Y\setminus T)$. In particular we completely determine the subspace of binary dihedral representations, and identify all of $R(Y,T)$ for many t…

We provide infinitely many rational homology 3-spheres with weight-one fundamental groups which do not arise from Dehn surgery on knots in $S^3$. In contrast with previously known examples, our proofs do not require any gauge theory or Floer homology. Instead, we make use of the $SU(2)$ character variety of the fundame…

Null-homotopic knots in certain 3-manifolds are uniquely identified by their complements.

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…

Let $Γ$ be a finitely generated group and $G$ a real form of $\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb{C})$. We propose a definition for the $G$-character variety of $Γ$ as a subset of the $\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb{C})$-character variety of $Γ$. We consider two anti-holomorphic involutions of the $\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb{C})$ character variet…

There are some similarities between cohomology of SU(2)-representation varieties of the fundamental group of some link complements and the Khovanov homology of the links. We start here a program to explain a possible source of these similarities. We introduce a symplectic manifold ${\mathscr M}$ with an action of the b…

Proof that $SU(2)$ character variety of genus 2 surface is ${\mathbb C} P^3$.

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.

There is a well-known correspondence between the symplectic variety of representations of the fundamental group of a punctured Riemann surface into a compact Lie group G, with fixed conjugacy classes at the punctures, and a complex variety of holomorphic bundles on the unpunctured surface with a parabolic structure at …

Study on representation varieties of RAAGs for different Lie groups.

We show that the first Johnson subgroup of the mapping class group of a surface S of genus greater than one acts ergodically on the moduli space of representations of the fundamental group of S in SU_2. Our proof relies on a local description of the latter space around the trivial representation and on the Taylor expan…

Let S be a compact orientable surface with genus g and n boundary components d_1,...,d_n. Let b = (b_1, ..., b_n) where b_n lies in [-2,2]. Then the mapping class group of S acts on the relative SU(2)-character variety X comprising conjugacy classes of representations f of the fundamental group F of S, where trace f(d_…

For each oriented surface $Σ$ of genus $g$ we study a limit of quantum representations of the mapping class group arising in TQFT derived from the Kauffman bracket. We determine that these representations converge in the Fell topology to the representation of the mapping class group on $\boH(Σ)$, the space of regular f…

We consider the representation space of a compact surface, that is the space of morphisms from the fundamental group to SU(2) up to conjugation. We show that the trace functions associated to multicurves on the surface are linearly independent as functions on the representation space. The proof relies on the Fourier de…

Study of pseudo-Anosov actions on $SU(2)$-character variety for genus 2 surfaces.

We recently defined invariants of contact 3-manifolds using a version of instanton Floer homology for sutured manifolds. In this paper, we prove that if several contact structures on a 3-manifold are induced by Stein structures on a single 4-manifold with distinct Chern classes modulo torsion then their contact invaria…

We study the geometry of the twistor space of the universal hyperkaehler implosion Q for SU(n). Using the description of Q as a hyperkaehler quiver variety, we construct a holomorphic map from the twistor space Z_Q of Q to a complex vector bundle over P^1, and an associated map of Q to the affine space R of the bundle'…

Researchers describe the dual of cohomology generators for SU(2) character varieties of surfaces.

In this paper we use the Morse theory of the Yang-Mills-Higgs functional on the singular space of Higgs bundles on Riemann surfaces to compute the equivariant cohomology of the space of semistable U(2,1) and SU(2,1) Higgs bundles with fixed Toledo invariant. In the non-coprime case this gives new results about the topo…

The traceless $SU(2)$ character variety $R(S^2,\{a_i,b_i\}_{i=1}^n)$ of a $2n$-punctured 2-sphere is the symplectic reduction of a Hamiltonian $n$-torus action on the $SU(2)$ character variety of a closed surface of genus $n$. It is stratified with a finite singular stratum and a top smooth symplectic stratum of dimens…

New methods for computing a variety of gauge theoretic invariants for homology 3-spheres are developed. These invariants include the Chern-Simons invariants, the spectral flow of the odd signature operator, and the rho invariants of irreducible SU(2) representations. These quantities are calculated for flat SU(2) conne…

When $G$ is a connected compact Lie group, and $π$ is a closed surface group, then $Hom(π,G)$ contains an open dense $Out(π)$-invariant subset which is a smooth symplectic manifold. This symplectic structure is $Out(π)$-invariant and therefore defines an invariant measure $μ$, which has finite volume. The corresponding…

Unified framework counts knot representations into SU(2) and SL(2,R).

Given a knot K and an irreducible metabelian SL(n,C) representation we establish an equality for the dimension of the first twisted cohomology. In the case of equality, we prove that the representation must have finite image and that it is conjugate to an SU(n) representation. In this case we show it determines a smoot…

Consider the Chern-Simons topological quantum field theory with gauge group SU(2) and level k. Given a knot in the 3-sphere, this theory associates to the knot exterior an element in a vector space. We call this vector the knot state and study its asymptotic properties when the level is large. The latter vector space b…

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 …

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.

New nonacyclic Reidemeister torsions defined for odd-dimensional manifolds.

Let X be the moduli space of SL(n,C), SU(n), GL(n,C), or U(n)-valued representations of a rank r free group. We classify the algebraic singular stratification of X. This comes down to showing that the singular locus corresponds exactly to reducible representations if there exist singularities at all. Then by relating a…

Let $ρ$ be a maximal representation of a uniform lattice $Γ\subset{\rm SU}(n,1)$, $n\geq 2$, in a classical Lie group of Hermitian type $H$. We prove that necessarily $H={\rm SU}(p,q)$ with $p\geq qn$ and there exists a holomorphic or antiholomorphic $ρ$-equivariant map from complex hyperbolic space to the symmetric sp…

For n>2, the action of the outer automorphism group of the rank n free group F_n on the SU(2)-character variety Hom(F_n,SU(2))/SU(2)$ is ergodic with respect to the Lebesgue measure class.

We prove that the fundamental group of any integer homology 3-sphere different from the 3-sphere admits irreducible representations of its fundamental group in SL(2,C). For hyperbolic integer homology spheres this comes with the definition, and for Seifert fibered integer homology spheres this is well known. We prove t…

Link groups can only have certain SU(2) representations.

The topology of $SU(3)$-representation varieties of the fundamental groups of planar webs so that the meridians are sent to matrices with trace equal to $-1$ are explored, and compared to data coming from spider evaluation of the webs. Corresponding to an evaluation of a web as a spider is a rooted tree. We associate t…

Proves SU(2) representations for certain 3-spheres with embedded tori.

Proves rigidity of SU(2) and SO(3) quantum representations at prime levels.

The $SU_3$-skein algebra of a surface $F$ is spanned by isotopy classes of certain framed graphs in $F\times I$ called $3$-webs subject to the skein relations encapsulating relations between $U_q(sl(3))$-representations. These skein algebras are quantizations of the $SL(3)$-character varieties of surfaces. It is expect…

The study explores SU(2) representations in 3-manifolds and knots with specific Heegaard genus constraints.

New method to compute tangle sums in character varieties.

Graph manifolds with small homology have non-trivial SU(2) representations.

We define an elementary relatively $\mathbb Z/4$ graded Lagrangian-Floer chain complex for restricted immersions of compact 1-manifolds into the pillowcase, and apply it to the intersection diagram obtained by taking traceless $SU(2)$ character varieties of 2-tangle decompositions of knots. Calculations for torus knots…

Let $Σ_g$ be a compact, connected, orientable surface of genus $g \geq 2$. We ask for a parametrization of the discrete, faithful, totally loxodromic representations in the deformation space ${\rm Hom}(π_1(Σ_g), {\rm SU}(3,1))/{\rm SU}(3,1)$. We show that such a representation, under some hypothesis, can be determined …