Matrices in companion rings, Smith forms, and the homology of 3-dimensional Brieskorn manifolds

TL;DR

This paper investigates the Smith forms of matrices derived from companion matrices over elementary divisor domains, linking algebraic properties to topological invariants of Brieskorn manifolds.

Contribution

It introduces a method to compute Smith forms of matrices like circulant and Toeplitz matrices via polynomial resultants, connecting algebraic and topological properties.

Findings

Smith form calculation reduces to polynomial resultants.

Expresses the last non-zero determinantal divisor as a resultant.

Determines homology of Brieskorn manifolds using matrix Smith forms.

Abstract

We study the Smith forms of matrices of the form $f(C_g)$ where $f(t),g(t)\in R[t]$, $C_g$ is the companion matrix of the (monic) polynomial $g(t)$, and $R$ is an elementary divisor domain. Prominent examples of such matrices are circulant matrices, skew-circulant matrices, and triangular Toeplitz matrices. In particular, we reduce the calculation of the Smith form of the matrix $f(C_g)$ to that of the matrix $F(C_G)$, where $F,G$ are quotients of $f(t),g(t)$ by some common divisor. This allows us to express the last non-zero determinantal divisor of $f(C_g)$ as a resultant. A key tool is the observation that a matrix ring generated by $C_g$ -- the companion ring of $g(t)$ -- is isomorphic to the polynomial ring $Q_g=R[t]/<g(t)>$. We relate several features of the Smith form of $f(C_g)$ to the properties of the polynomial $g(t)$ and the equivalence classes $[f(t)]\in Q_g$. As an application we let $f(t)$ be the Alexander polynomial of a torus knot and $g(t)=t^n-1$, and calculate the Smith form of the circulant matrix $f(C_g)$. By appealing to results concerning cyclic branched covers of knots and cyclically presented groups, this provides the homology of all Brieskorn manifolds $M(r,s,n)$ where $r,s$ are coprime.