The (twisted/$L^2$)-Alexander polynomial of ideally triangulated 3-manifolds

Abstract

We establish a connection between the Alexander polynomial of a knot and its twisted and $L^2$-versions with the triangulations that appear in 3-dimensional hyperbolic geometry. Specifically, we introduce twisted Neumann--Zagier matrices of ordered ideal triangulations and use them to provide formulas for the Alexander polynomial and its variants, the twisted Alexander polynomial and the $L^2$-Alexander torsion.