Torus-covering knot groups and their irreducible metabelian $SU(2)$-representations

Abstract

A torus-covering $T^2$-knot is a surface-knot of genus one determined from a pair of commutative braids. For a torus-covering $T^2$-knot $F$, we determine the number of irreducible metabelian $SU(2)$-representations of the knot group of $F$ in terms of the knot determinant of $F$. It is similar to the result due to Lin for the knot group of a classical knot. Further, we investigate the number of irreducible metabelian $SU(2)$-representations using Fox's $p$-colorability.

26 pages, 3 figures, minor revision, to appear in Asian J. Math