Irreducible $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$-metabelian representations of branched twist spins

Abstract

An $(m,n)$-branched twist spin is a fibered $2$-knot in $S^4$ which is determined by a $1$-knot $K$ and coprime integers $m$ and $n$. For a $1$-knot, Lin proved that the number of irreducible $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$-metabelian representations of the knot group of a $1$-knot up to conjugation is determined by the knot determinant of the $1$-knot. In this paper, we prove that the number of irreducible $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$-metabelian representations of the knot group of an $(m,n)$-branched twist spin up to conjugation is determined by the determinant of a $1$-knot in the orbit space by comparing a presentation of the knot group of the branched twist spin with the Lin's presentation of the knot group of the $1$-knot.