Identifier

etd-07012016-104111

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Mathematics

Document Type

Dissertation

Abstract

In [2] Armond showed that the heads and tails of the colored Jones polynomial exist for adequate links. This was also shown independently by Garoufalidis and Le for alternating links in [8]. Here we study coefficients of the "difference quotient" of the colored Jones polynomial. We begin with the fundamentals of knot theory. A brief introduction to skein theory is also included to illustrate those necessary tools. In Chapter 3 we give an explicit expression for the first coefficient of the relative difference. In Chapter 4 we develop a formula of t_2, the number of regions with exactly 2 crossings in the diagram of a link, for a specific class of alternating links, and then improve with this result the upper bound of the volume for a hyperbolic alternating link which Dasbach and Tsvietkova gave in the coefficients of the colored Jones polynomial in [7].

Date

2016

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Dasbach, Oliver T

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.2227

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