Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

We investigate aspects of Kauffman bracket skein algebras of surfaces and modules of 3-manifolds using quantum torus methods. These methods come in two flavors: embedding the skein algebra into a quantum torus related to quantum Teichmuller space, or filtering the algebra and obtaining an associated graded algebra that is a monomial subalgebra of a quantum torus. We utilize the former method to generalize the Chebyshev homomorphism of Bonahon and Wong between skein algebras of surfaces to a Chebyshev-Frobenius homomorphism between skein modules of marked 3-manifolds, in the course of which we define a surgery theory, and whose image we show is either transparent or (skew)-transparent. The latter method is used to show that skein algebras of surfaces are maximal orders, which implies a refined unicity theorem, shows that SL_2C-character varieties are normal, and suggests a conjecture on how this result may be utilized for topological quantum compiling.