Ihara zeta function and twisted Alexander invariants

Abstract

Lin and Wang defined a model of random walks on knot diagrams and interprete the Alexnader polynomials and the colored Jones polynomials as Ihara zeta functions, i.e. zeta functions defined by counting cycles on the knot diagram. Using this explanation, they gave a more conceptual proof for the Melvin-Morton conjecture. In this paper, we give an analogous zeta function expression for the twisted Alexander invariants.