The Colored Jones Polynomial and the A-Polynomial of Knots

We study relationships between the colored Jones polynomial and the A-polynomial of a knot. We establish for a large class of 2-bridge knots the AJ conjecture (of Garoufalidis) that relates the colored Jones polynomial and the A-polynomial. Along the way we also calculate the Kauffman bracket skein module of all 2-bridge knots. Some properties of the colored Jones polynomial of alternating knots are established.Comment: Typos and minor mistakes corrected. To appear in Advances in Mathematic

Integrality of quantum 3-manifold invariants and rational surgery formula

We prove that the Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev (WRT) SO(3) invariant of an arbitrary 3-manifold M is always an algebraic integer. Moreover, we give a rational surgery formula for the unified invariant dominating WRT SO(3) invariants of rational homology 3-spheres at roots of unity of order co-prime with the torsion. As an application, we compute the unified invariant for Seifert fibered spaces and for Dehn surgeries on twist knots. We show that this invariant separates integral homology Seifert fibered spaces and can be used to detect the unknot.Comment: 18 pages, Compositio Math. in pres