The volume conjecture for knots

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Let K⊂S3K\subset S^3 be a knot, and let ∥K∥\|K\| denote its simplicial volume, known here to be the sum of the hyperbolic volumes of the hyperbolic pieces in the knot complement. Let JN(K;q)J_N(K;q) be the colored Jones polynomial associated with the NN-dimensional irreducible representation of sl(2;C)\mathfrak{sl}(2;\mathbb{C}). The volume conjecture. For every knot K⊂S3K\subset S^3,

lim⁡N→∞log⁡∣JN(K;e2π−1/N)∣N=∥K∥2π.\lim_{N\to\infty}\frac{\log\left|J_N(K;e^{2\pi\sqrt{-1}/N})\right|}{N}=\frac{\|K\|}{2\pi}.

The conjecture extends Kashaev's hyperbolic-link formulation to arbitrary knots. The paper records proofs for torus knots, the figure-eight knot, and several knots with at most seven crossings, but not the general case.

Equivalent formulations 2Other wordings

Other statements of this same problem, merged from separate entries. Each is equivalent to the statement above — proving any one settles them all.

  1. The volume conjecture for knots

    Let KK be a knot. The NN-colored Jones invariant of KK is denoted by JN(K)J_N(K), and let Vol(S3−K)\mathrm{Vol}(\mathbb{S}^3-K) denote the simplicial volume of its complement.

    Volume conjecture. For any knot KK,

    lim⁡N→∞2πNlog⁡∣JN(K)(eπi2N)∣=Vol(S3−K).\lim_{N\to \infty}\frac{2\pi}{N}\log\left|J_N(K)\left(e^{\frac{\pi i}{2N}}\right)\right|=\mathrm{Vol}(\mathbb{S}^3-K).

    This conjecture proposes a relation between colored Jones invariants at roots of unity and the simplicial volume of a knot complement; its status is not resolved in the supplied source.

    source: Roland van der Veen, “The volume conjecture for augmented knotted trivalent graphs”, arXiv:0805.0094 (2009).

  2. The volume conjecture for knots

    Let KK) be a knot. Write JN(K)J_N(K) for its normalized NN-colored Jones polynomial, and let $

    \mathrm{Vol}(K)=v_3\,\|\mathbb{S}^3-K\|$

    where v3v_3 is the volume of the regular ideal hyperbolic tetrahedron and ∥S3−K∥\|\mathbb{S}^3-K\| is the simplicial volume of the complement.

    Volume conjecture. For every knot KK,

    lim⁡N→∞2πNlog⁡∣JN(K)(e2πiN)∣=Vol(K).\lim_{N\to\infty}\frac{2\pi}{N}\log\left|J_N(K)\left(e^{\frac{2\pi i}{N}}\right)\right|=\mathrm{Vol}(K).

    The paper proves this conjecture for the Whitehead link and related Whitehead chains in the cases described in its main theorem, while also exhibiting non-splittable links for which the original formulation fails.

    source: Roland van der Veen, “Proof of the volume conjecture for Whitehead chains”, arXiv:math/0611181 (2007).

References

Primary source

Hitoshi Murakami, “The colored Jones polynomial of the figure-eight knot and an SL(2;R)-representation”, arXiv:2312.00350 (2023).

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