arXiv subjects

Ilya Kofman

Publications and source records attributed to Ilya Kofman.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Geometric bounds for spanning tree entropy of planar lattice graphs

We prove infinitely many cases of conjectured sharp upper and lower bounds for the spanning tree entropy of any planar lattice graph. These bounds come from volumes of associated hyperbolic alternating links, right-angled hyperbolic polyhedra and hyperbolic regular ideal bipyramids. For many planar lattice graphs, we show these bounds are easy to compute and provide excellent numerical estimates for the spanning tree entropy.

math.GT↗

arXiv2021

Right-angled polyhedra and alternating links

To any prime alternating link, we associate a collection of hyperbolic right-angled ideal polyhedra by relating geometric, topological and combinatorial methods to decompose the link complement. The sum of the hyperbolic volumes of these polyhedra is a new geometric link invariant, which we call the right-angled volume of the alternating link. We give an explicit procedure to compute the right-angled volume from any alternating link diagram, and prove that it is a new lower bound for the hyperbolic volume of the link.

math.GT↗

arXiv2020

A volumish theorem for alternating virtual links

Dasbach and Lin proved a "volumish theorem" for alternating links. We prove the analogue for alternating link diagrams on surfaces, which provides bounds on the hyperbolic volume of a link in a thickened surface in terms of coefficients of its reduced Jones-Krushkal polynomial. Along the way, we show that certain coefficients of the 4-variable Krushkal polynomial express the cycle rank of the reduced Tait graph on the surface.

math.GT↗

arXiv2019

Examples of homological torsion and volume growth

We provide examples of towers of covers of cusped hyperbolic 3-manifolds whose exponential homological torsion growth is explicitly computed in terms of volume growth. These examples arise from abelian covers of alternating links in the thickened torus. A corollary is that the spanning tree entropy for each regular planar lattice is given by the volume of a hyperbolic polyhedron.

math.GT↗

arXiv2019

Turaev Surfaces

An expository article on Turaev surfaces written for "A Concise Encyclopedia of Knot Theory," to appear.

math.GT↗

arXiv2018

Mahler Measure and the Vol-Det Conjecture

The Vol-Det Conjecture relates the volume and the determinant of a hyperbolic alternating link in $S^3$. We use exact computations of Mahler measures of two-variable polynomials to prove the Vol-Det Conjecture for many infinite families of alternating links. We conjecture a new lower bound for the Mahler measure of certain two-variable polynomials in terms of volumes of hyperbolic regular ideal bipyramids. Associating each polynomial to a toroidal link using the toroidal dimer model, we show that every polynomial which satisfies this conjecture with a strict inequality gives rise to many infinite families of alternating links satisfying the Vol-Det Conjecture. We prove this new conjecture for six toroidal links by rigorously computing the Mahler measures of their two-variable polynomials.

math.GT↗

arXiv2018

Geometrically and diagrammatically maximal knots

The ratio of volume to crossing number of a hyperbolic knot is known to be bounded above by the volume of a regular ideal octahedron, and a similar bound is conjectured for the knot determinant per crossing. We investigate a natural question motivated by these bounds: For which knots are these ratios nearly maximal? We show that many families of alternating knots and links simultaneously maximize both ratios.

math.GT↗

arXiv2018

Geometry of biperiodic alternating links

A biperiodic alternating link has an alternating quotient link in the thickened torus. In this paper, we focus on semi-regular links, a class of biperiodic alternating links whose hyperbolic structure can be immediately determined from a corresponding Euclidean tiling. Consequently, we determine the exact volumes of semi-regular links. We relate their commensurability and arithmeticity to the corresponding tiling, and assuming a conjecture of Milnor, we show there exist infinitely many pairwise incommensurable semi-regular links with the same invariant trace field. We show that only two semi-regular links have totally geodesic checkerboard surfaces; these two links satisfy the Volume Density Conjecture. Finally, we give conditions implying that many additional biperiodic alternating links are hyperbolic and admit a positively oriented, unimodular geometric triangulation. We also provide sharp upper and lower volume bounds for these links.

math.GT↗

arXiv2016

Determinant density and biperiodic alternating links

Let L be any infinite biperiodic alternating link. We show that for any sequence of finite links that Folner converges almost everywhere to L, their determinant densities converge to the Mahler measure of the 2-variable characteristic polynomial of the toroidal dimer model on an associated biperiodic graph.

math.GT↗

arXiv2016

Volume bounds for weaving knots

Weaving knots are alternating knots with the same projection as torus knots, and were conjectured by X.-S. Lin to be among the maximum volume knots for fixed crossing number. We provide the first asymptotically correct volume bounds for weaving knots, and we prove that the infinite weave is their geometric limit.

math.GT↗

arXiv2015

Density spectra for knots

We recently discovered a relationship between the volume density spectrum and the determinant density spectrum for infinite sequences of hyperbolic knots. Here, we extend this study to new quantum density spectra associated to quantum invariants, such as Jones polynomials, Kashaev invariants and knot homology. We also propose related conjectures motivated by geometrically and diagrammatically maximal sequences of knots.

math.GT↗

arXiv2014

The 500 simplest hyperbolic knots

We identify all hyperbolic knots whose complements are in the census of orientable one-cusped hyperbolic manifolds with eight ideal tetrahedra. We also compute their Jones polynomials.

math.GT↗

arXiv2014

A survey on the Turaev genus of knots

The Turaev genus of a knot is a topological measure of how far a given knot is from being alternating. Recent work by several authors has focused attention on this interesting invariant. We discuss how the Turaev genus is related to other knot invariants, including the Jones polynomial, knot homology theories, and ribbon-graph polynomial invariants.

math.GT↗

arXiv2011

Volume bounds for generalized twisted torus links

Twisted torus knots and links are given by twisting adjacent strands of a torus link. They are geometrically simple and contain many examples of the smallest volume hyperbolic knots. Many are also Lorenz links. We study the geometry of twisted torus links and related generalizations. We determine upper bounds on their hyperbolic volumes that depend only on the number of strands being twisted. We exhibit a family of twisted torus knots for which this upper bound is sharp, and another family with volumes approaching infinity. Consequently, we show there exist twisted torus knots with arbitrarily large braid index and yet bounded volume.

math.GT↗

arXiv2011

Quasi-tree expansion for the Bollobás-Riordan-Tutte polynomial

Oriented ribbon graphs (dessins d'enfant) are graphs embedded in oriented surfaces. The Bollobás-Riordan-Tutte polynomial is a three-variable polynomial that extends the Tutte polynomial to oriented ribbon graphs. A quasi-tree of a ribbon graph is a spanning subgraph with one face, which is described by an ordered chord diagram. We generalize the spanning tree expansion of the Tutte polynomial to a quasi-tree expansion of the Bollobás-Riordan-Tutte polynomial.

math.CO↗

arXiv2010

On the tail of Jones polynomials of closed braids with a full twist

For a closed n-braid L with a full positive twist and with k negative crossings, 0\leq k \leq n, we determine the first n-k+1 terms of the Jones polynomial V_L(t). We show that V_L(t) satisfies a braid index constraint, which is a gap of length at least n-k between the first two nonzero coefficients of (1-t^2)V_L(t). For a closed positive n-braid with a full positive twist, we extend our results to the colored Jones polynomials. For N>n-1, we determine the first n(N-1)+1 terms of the normalized N-th colored Jones polynomial.

math.GT↗

arXiv2009

On links with cyclotomic Jones polynomials

We show that if {L_n} is any infinite sequence of links with twist number tau(L_n) and with cyclotomic Jones polynomials of increasing span, then lim sup tau(L_n)=infty. This implies that any infinite sequence of prime alternating links with cyclotomic Jones polynomials must have unbounded hyperbolic volume. The main tool is the multivariable twist--bracket polynomial, which generalizes the Kauffman bracket to link diagrams with open twist sites.

math.GT↗

arXiv2009

A new twist on Lorenz links

Twisted torus links are given by twisting a subset of strands on a closed braid representative of a torus link. T--links are a natural generalization, given by repeated positive twisting. We establish a one-to-one correspondence between positive braid representatives of Lorenz links and T--links, so Lorenz links and T--links coincide. Using this correspondence, we identify over half of the simplest hyperbolic knots as Lorenz knots. We show that both hyperbolic volume and the Mahler measure of Jones polynomials are bounded for infinite collections of hyperbolic Lorenz links. The correspondence provides unexpected symmetries for both Lorenz links and T-links, and establishes many new results for T-links, including new braid index formulas.

math.GT↗