The A-polynomial and knot volume
Abstract
In this paper, we conjecture a connection between the A-polynomial of a knot in 𝕊3 and the hyperbolic volume of its exterior ℳK: the knots with zero hyperbolic volume are exactly the knots with an A-polynomial where every irreducible factor is the sum of two monomials in L and M. Herein, we show the forward implication and examine cases that suggest the converse may also be true. Since the A-polynomial of hyperbolic knots are known to have at least one irreducible factor which is not the sum of two monomials in L and M, this paper considers satellite knots which are graph knots and some with positive hyperbolic volume.