arXiv research

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

New method to compute tangle sums in character varieties.

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…

Since its inception, Floer homology has been an important tool in low-dimensional topology. Floer theoretic invariants of $3$-manifolds tend to be either gauge theoretic or symplecto-geometric in nature, and there is a general philosophy that each gauge theoretic Floer homology should have a corresponding symplectic Fl…

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…

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…

The abstract describes a strategy to construct reduced Khovanov homology for links in lens spaces.

Study shows how tangle moduli spaces relate to boundary surfaces.

For a diagram of a 2-stranded tangle in the 3-ball we define a twisted complex of compact Lagrangians in the triangulated envelope of the Fukaya category of the smooth locus of the pillowcase. We show that this twisted complex is a functorial invariant of the isotopy class of the tangle, and that it provides a factoriz…

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…

We describe a scheme for constructing generating sets for Kronheimer and Mrowka's singular instanton knot homology for the case of knots in lens spaces. The scheme involves Heegaard-splitting a lens space containing a knot into two solid tori. One solid torus contains a portion of the knot consisting of an unknotted ar…

Study shows how tangle geometry maps onto pillowcase surfaces.

We introduce explicit holonomy perturbations of the Chern-Simons functional on a 3-ball containing a pair of unknotted arcs. These perturbations give us a concrete local method for making the moduli spaces of flat singular SO(3) connections relevant to Kronheimer and Mrowka's singular instanton knot homology non-degene…

In arXiv:1611.09927, we constructed a well-defined Lagrangian Floer invariant for any closed, oriented $3$-manifold $Y$ via the symplectic geometry of so-called traceless $\mathrm{SU}(2)$-character varieties. This invariant, $\mathrm{SI}(Y)$, which we refer to as the symplectic instanton homology of $Y$, was also shown…

New knot homology theory from symplectic geometry.

Character varieties get a natural Poisson structure.

Quantum character varieties unify four construction methods.

Character variety of Borromean link solved, Alexander polynomial formula found.

Computes dimensions of representation and character varieties for 2 and 3-dimensional orbifolds.

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

Character variety of Whitehead link described in detail.

Proves Torelli group action is ergodic on Lie group character varieties.

We study some basic properties of the variety of characters in PSL(2,C) of a finitely generated group. In particular we give an interpretation of its points as characters of representations. We construct 3-manifolds whose variety of characters has arbitrarily many components that do not lift to SL(2,C). We also study t…

A family of new algebraic Poisson varieties will be constructed, generalising the complex character varieties of Riemann surfaces. Then the well-known (Poisson) mapping class group actions on the character varieties will be generalised.

Study character varieties of hyperbolic 3-manifolds using bundle methods.

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

The powerful character variety techniques of Culler and Shalen can be used to find essential surfaces in knot manifolds. We show that module structures on the coordinate ring of the character variety can be used to identify detected boundary slopes as well as when closed surfaces are detected. This approach also yields…

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

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

New compactification for character varieties with good topological properties.

Study character varieties of arborescent knots and hyperbolic knots.

Study character variety of a special 3-manifold, finding a polynomial formula.

We describe the (P)SL(2,C) character varieties of all 2-bridge knots and the diagonal character varieties for all 2-bridge links in terms of a set of polynomials defined using Farey recursion.

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…

Minimal action of mapping class group on character variety.

Anosov representations of surface groups are complex manifolds.

In this paper we consider some families of links, including (-2,2m+1,2n)-pretzel links and twisted Whitehead links. We calculate the character varieties of these families, and determine the number of irreducible components of these character varieties.

We describe a birational map between subvarieties in the character varieties of mutative 3-manifolds. By studying the birational map, one can decide in certain circumstances whether a mutation surface is detected by an ideal point of the character variety.

We will construct twisted versions of the wild character varieties.

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

Study shows how certain knots and tori are detected by ideal points in character varieties.

Study of twisted $L^2$-torsion on 3-manifold character varieties.

Authors determine the SL(2,C) character variety of a specific knot without computer aid.

Compactifies character varieties for group actions.

We show that for any knot there exist only finitely many irreducible metabelian characters in the $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$-character variety of the knot group, and the number is given explicitly by using the determinant of the knot. Then it turns out that for any 2-bridge knot a section of the $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$-character va…

We extend Culler and Shalen's construction of detecting essential surfaces in 3-manifolds to 3-orbifolds. We do so in the setting of the $\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{C})$ character variety, and following Boyer and Zhang in the $\mathrm{PSL}_2(\mathbb{C})$ character variety as well. We show that any slope detected on a canoni…

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

We study $\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{F})$-character varieties of knots over algebraically closed fields $\mathbb{F}$. We give a sufficient condition in terms of the double branched cover of a $2$-bridge knot (or, equivalently, of its Alexander polynomial) on the characteristic of $\mathbb{F}$, an odd prime, for the $\mathrm…