The twisted Alexander polynomial has been explicitly computed for a few classes of knots and links, including twist knots [11] and genus one two-bridge knots [18]. In this paper we compute the two-variable twisted Alexander polynomial of twisted Whitehead links for SL₂(C)-representations. As an application, we verify the hyperbolic torsion conjecture in [3,14] for twisted Whitehead links. We also obtain a formula for the Reidemeister torsion of the 3-manifold obtained from S³ by (p/l)-surgery along one component of twisted Whitehead links.

The second author has been partially supported by a grant from the Simons Foundation (#354595 to AT)