KCH representations, augmentations, and $A$-polynomials

Abstract

We describe a correspondence between augmentations and certain representations of the knot group. The correspondence makes the 2-variable augmentation polynomial into a generalization of the classical $A$-polynomial. It also associates to an augmentation a rank, which is bounded by the bridge number and shares its behavior under connect sums. We also study augmentations with rank equal to the braid index.

arXiv commentRevised published version, 23 pages