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Volume function and Mahler measure of exact polynomials

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2021

Antonin Guilloux
Affiliation:
Sorbonne Université, CNRS, IMJ-PRG and INRIA OURAGAN, 75252Paris cédex 05, [email protected]
Julien Marché
Affiliation:
Sorbonne Université, CNRS, IMJ-PRG, 75252Paris cédex 05, [email protected]

Abstract

We study a class of two-variable polynomials called exact polynomials which contains $A$-polynomials of knot complements. The Mahler measure of these polynomials can be computed in terms of a volume function defined on the vanishing set of the polynomial. We prove that the local extrema of the volume function are on the two-dimensional torus and give a closed formula for the Mahler measure in terms of these extremal values. This formula shows that the Mahler measure of an irreducible and exact polynomial divided by $\pi$ is greater than the amplitude of the volume function. We also prove a K-theoretic criterion for a polynomial to be a factor of an $A$-polynomial and give a topological interpretation of its Mahler measure.

MSC classification

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021

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