We use some Lie group theory and Budney's unitarization of the Lawrence-Krammer representation, to prove that for generic parameters of definite form the image of the representation (also on certain types of subgroups) is dense in the unitary group. This implies that, except possibly for closures of full-twist braids, all links have infinitely many conjugacy classes of braid representations on any non-minimal number of (and at least 4) strands.
We show that the span of the variable $q$ in the Lawrence-Krammer-Bigelow representation matrix of a braid is equal to the twice of the dual Garside length of the braid, as was conjectured by Krammer. Our proof is close in spirit to Bigelow's geometric approach. The key observation is that the dual Garside length of a braid can be read off a certain labeling of its curve diagram.
A very popular problem on braid groups has recently been solved by Bigelow and Krammer, namely, they have found a faithful linear representation for the braid group B_n. In their papers, Bigelow and Krammer suggested that their representation is the monodromy representation of a certain fibration. Our goal in this paper is to understand this monodromy representation using standard tools from the theory of hyperplane arrangements. In particular, we prove that the representation of Bigelow and Krammer is a sub-representation of the monodromy representation which we consider, but that it cannot b…
We show that the Lawrence-Krammer representation based on two parameters that was used by Bigelow and independently Krammer to show the linearity of the braid group is generically irreducible, but that when its parameters are specialized to some nonzero complex numbers, the representation is reducible. To do so, we construct a representation of the BMW algebra inside the Lawrence-Krammer space. As a representation of the braid group, this representation is equivalent to the Lawrence-Krammer representation, where the two parameters of the algebra are related to the parameters of the Lawrence-Kr…
Lawrence-Krammer representations are an important family of linear representations of Artin-Tits groups of small type, which are known, under some assumptions on the parameters, to be faithful when the type is spherical (or more generally when they are restricted to the Artin-Tits monoid) and irreducible when the type is connected. Here, we investigate an analogue of these representations --- introduced by Digne in the spherical cases --- for every Artin-Tits monoid that appears as the submonoid of fixed points of an Artin-Tits monoid of small type under a group of graph automorphisms, and for…
It is known that the Lawrence-Krammer representation of the Artin group of type $A_{n-1}$ based on the two parameters $t$ and $q$ that was used by Krammer and independently by Bigelow to show the linearity of the braid group on $n$ strands is generically irreducible. Here, we recover this result and show further that for some complex specializations of the parameters the representation is reducible. We give all the values of the parameters for which the representation is reducible as well as the dimensions of the invariant subspaces. We deduce some results of semisimplicity of the Birman-Murak…
The Lawrence-Krammer representation is a quantization of the symmetric square of the Burau representation
Institute of Mathematics, Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences（乌克兰国家科学院数学研究所）；Royal Institution, London Institute for Mathematical Sciences（伦敦皇家学会数学研究所）
Lawrence-Krammer representations (LK-representations for short) are linear representations of Artin-Tits groups of small type, which are of importance since they are known to be faithful when the type is spherical, or more generally when restricted to the monoid. If the construction is essentially unique for a given small and spherical type, the structure of the set of LK-representations for a given small type is not understood in general. Another important question is to ask if there exists an analogue of this construction in the non-small cases ; a first answer is given in [Digne, On the lin…
When Daan Krammer and Stephen Bigelow independently proved that braid groups are linear, they used the Lawrence-Krammer-Bigelow representation for generic values of its variables q and t. The t variable is closely connected to the traditional Garside structure of the braid group and plays a major role in Krammer's algebraic proof. The q variable, associated with the dual Garside structure of the braid group, has received less attention. In this article we give a geometric interpretation of the q portion of the LKB representation in terms of an action of the braid group on the space of non-dege…
A connection is made between the Krammer representation and the Birman-Murakami-Wenzl algebra. Inspired by a dimension argument, a basis is found for a certain irrep of the algebra, and relations which generate the matrices are found. Following a rescaling and change of parameters, the matrices are found to be identical to those of the Krammer representation. The two representations are thus the same, proving the irreducibility of one and the faithfulness of the other.
The braid groups B_n can be defined as the mapping class group of the n-punctured disc. The Lawrence-Krammer representation of the braid group B_n is the induced action on a certain twisted second homology of the space of unordered pairs of points in the n-punctured disc. Recently, Daan Krammer showed that this is a faithful representation in the case n=4. In this paper, we show that it is faithful for all n.
Let B be the generalized braid group associated to some finite complex reflection group. We define a representation of B of dimension the number of reflections of the corresponding reflection group, which generalizes the Krammer representation of the classical braid groups, and is thus a good candidate in view of proving the linearity of these groups. We decompose this representation in irreducible components and compute its Zariski closure, as well as its restriction to parabolic subgroups. We prove that it is faithful when W is a Coxeter group of type ADE and odd dihedral types, and conjectu…
Recent results on the linearity of braid groups are extended in two ways. We generalize the Lawrence Krammer representation as well as Krammer's faithfulness proof for this linear representation to Artin groups of finite type.
We propose a family of new representations of the braid groups on surfaces that extend linear representations of the braid groups on a disc such as the Burau representation and the Lawrence-Krammer-Bigelow representation.
The recent proof by Bigelow and Krammer that the braid groups are linear opens the possibility of applications to the study of knots and links. It was proved by the first author and Menasco that any closed braid representative of the unknot can be systematically simplified to a round planar circle by a sequence of exchange moves and reducing moves. In this paper we establish connections between the faithfulness of the Krammer-Lawrence representation and the problem of recognizing when the conjugacy class of a closed braid admits an exchange move or a reducing move.
We define geodesic normal forms for the general series of complex reflection groups G(de,e,n). This requires the elaboration of a combinatorial technique in order to determine minimal word representatives and to compute the length of the elements of G(de,e,n) over some generating set. Using these geodesic normal forms, we construct intervals in G(e,e,n) that give rise to Garside groups. Some of these groups correspond to the complex braid group B(e,e,n). For the other Garside groups that appear, we study some of their properties and compute their second integral homology groups. Inspired by th…
Let M be a compact, connected surface, possibly with a finite set of points removed from its interior. Let d,n be positive integers, and let N be a d-fold covering space of M. We show that the covering map induces an embedding of the n-th braid group B_n(M) of M in the (dn)-th braid group B_{dn}(N) of N, and give several applications of this result. First, we classify the finite subgroups of the n-th braid group of the real projective plane, from which we deduce an alternative proof of the classification of the finite subgroups of the mapping class group of the n-punctured real projective plan…
We define a representation of the Artin groups of type ADE by monodromy of generalized KZ-systems which is shown to be isomorphic to the generalized Krammer representation originally defined by A.M. Cohen and D. Wales, and independantly by F. Digne. It follows that all pure Artin groups of spherical type are residually torsion-free nilpotent, hence (bi-)orderable. Using that construction we show that these irreducible representations are Zariski-dense in the corresponding general linear group. It follows that all irreducible Artin groups of spherical type can be embedded as Zariski-dense subgr…
In this paper we construct a faithful representation of the mapping class group of the genus two surface into a group of matrices over the complex numbers. Our starting point is the Lawrence-Krammer representation of the braid group B_n, which was shown to be faithful by Bigelow and Krammer. We obtain a faithful representation of the mapping class group of the n-punctured sphere by using the close relationship between this group and B_{n-1}. We then extend this to a faithful representation of the mapping class group of the genus two surface, using Birman and Hilden's result that this group is …
In the present paper we study structural aspects of certain quotients of braid groups and virtual braid groups. In particular, we construct and study linear representations $B_n\to {\rm GL}_{n(n-1)/2}\left(\mathbb{Z}[t^{\pm1}]\right)$, $VB_n\to {\rm GL}_{n(n-1)/2}\left(\mathbb{Z}[t^{\pm1}, t_1^{\pm1},t_2^{\pm1},\ldots, t_{n-1}^{\pm1}]\right)$ which are connected with the famous Lawrence-Bigelow-Krammer representation. It turns out that these representations are faithful representations of crystallographic groups $B_n/P_n'$, $VB_n/VP_n'$, respectively. Using these representations we study certa…
In this paper we describe the structure of a group of conjugating automorphisms $C_n$ of free group and prove that this structure is similar to the structure of a braid group $B_n$ with $n>1$ strings. We find the linear representation of group $C_n$. Also we prove that the braid group $B_n(S^2)$ of 2--sphere, mapping class group M(0,n) of the $n$--punctured 2--sphere and the braid group $B_3(P^2)$ of the projective plane are linear. Using result of J. Dyer, E. Formanek, E. Grossman and the faithful linear representation of Lawrence--Krammer of $B_4$ we construct faithful linear representation …
We show that Lawrence's representation and linear representations from quantum sl_2 called generic highest weight vectors detect the dual Garside length of braids in a simple and natural way. That is, by expressing a representation as a matrix over a Laurent polynomial ring using certain natural basis, the span of the variable is equal to the constant multiples of the dual Garside length.
The submonoid of the $3$-strand braid group $\mathcal{B}_3$ generated by $σ_1$ and $σ_1 σ_2$ is known to yield an exotic Garside structure on $\mathcal{B}_3$. We introduce and study an infinite family $(M_n)_{n\geq 1}$ of Garside monoids generalizing this exotic Garside structure, i.e., such that $M_2$ is isomorphic to the above monoid. The corresponding Garside group $G(M_n)$ is isomorphic to the $(n,n+1)$-torus knot group-which is isomorphic to $\mathcal{B}_3$ for $n=2$ and to the braid group of the exceptional complex reflection group $G_{12}$ for $n=3$. This yields a new Garside structure …
It is known that the recently discovered representations of the Artin groups of type A_n, the braid groups, can be constructed via BMW algebras. We introduce similar algebras of type D_n and E_n which also lead to the newly found faithful representations of the Artin groups of the corresponding types. We establish finite dimensionality of these algebras. Moreover, they have ideals I_1 and I_2 with I_2 contained in I_1 such that the quotient with respect to I_1 is the Hecke algebra and I_1/I_2 is a module for the corresponding Artin group generalizing the Lawrence-Krammer representation. Finall…
