Knots with large character varieties

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Choi, Philip, Porti, Joan, Yoon, Seokbeom
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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author Choi, Philip
Porti, Joan
Yoon, Seokbeom
author_facet Choi, Philip
Porti, Joan
Yoon, Seokbeom
contents We study knots whose $\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{C})$-character varieties have a component of dimension greater than one. We call such knots $\mathcal{X}$-large and introduce two diagrammatic constructions that produce $\mathcal{X}$-large knots. The first construction uses split link diagrams and rational tangle replacements, providing a topological explanation for most $\mathcal{X}$-large knots observed in knot tables. The second construction is based on braids and orientation-reversing involutions, and is motivated by a detailed analysis of the knot $10_{123}$, also known as the Turk's head knot $Th(3,5)$. In particular, this approach applies to Turk's head knots $Th(p,q)$ with $p$ and $q$ odd, leading us to conjecture that all such knots are $\mathcal{X}$-large. In doing so, we also present a non-orientable analogue of Thurston's theorem giving a lower bound on the dimension of character varieties of non-orientable 3-manifolds.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_00976
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Knots with large character varieties
Choi, Philip
Porti, Joan
Yoon, Seokbeom
Geometric Topology
We study knots whose $\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{C})$-character varieties have a component of dimension greater than one. We call such knots $\mathcal{X}$-large and introduce two diagrammatic constructions that produce $\mathcal{X}$-large knots. The first construction uses split link diagrams and rational tangle replacements, providing a topological explanation for most $\mathcal{X}$-large knots observed in knot tables. The second construction is based on braids and orientation-reversing involutions, and is motivated by a detailed analysis of the knot $10_{123}$, also known as the Turk's head knot $Th(3,5)$. In particular, this approach applies to Turk's head knots $Th(p,q)$ with $p$ and $q$ odd, leading us to conjecture that all such knots are $\mathcal{X}$-large. In doing so, we also present a non-orientable analogue of Thurston's theorem giving a lower bound on the dimension of character varieties of non-orientable 3-manifolds.
title Knots with large character varieties
topic Geometric Topology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.00976