We describe the fundamental groups of ordered and unordered k point sets in complex projective space of dimension n generating a projective subspace of dimension i. We apply these to study connectivity of more complicated configurations of points.
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…
Braid groups are an important and flexible tool used in several areas of science, such as Knot Theory (Alexander's theorem), Mathematical Physics (Yang-Baxter's equation) and Algebraic Geometry (monodromy invariants). In this note we will focus on their algebraic-geometric aspects, explaining how the representation theory of higher genus braid groups can be used to produce interesting examples of projective surfaces defined over the field of complex numbers.
We define a family of the braid group representations via the action of the $R$-matrix (of the quasitriangular extension) of the restricted quantum $\mathfrak{sl}(2)$ on a tensor power of a simple projective module. This family is an extension of the Lawrence representation specialized at roots of unity. Although the center of the braid group has finite order on the specialized Laurence representations, this action is faithful for our extension.
We classify the (finite and infinite) virtually cyclic subgroups of the pure braid groups $P_{n}(RP^2)$ of the projective plane. The maximal finite subgroups of $P_{n}(RP^2)$ are isomorphic to the quaternion group of order 8 if $n=3$, and to $\Z_{4}$ if $n\geq 4$. Further, for all $n\geq 3$, up to isomorphism, the following groups are the infinite virtually cyclic subgroups of $P_{n}(RP^2)$: $\Z$, $\Z_{2} \times \Z$ and the amalgamated product $\Z_{4} \ast_{\Z_{2}} \Z_{4}$.
We consider the (pure) braid groups B_{n}(M) and P_{n}(M), where M is the 2-sphere S^2 or the real projective plane RP^2. We determine the minimal cardinality of (normal) generating sets X of these groups, first when there is no restriction on X, and secondly when X consists of elements of finite order. This improves on results of Berrick and Matthey in the case of S^2, and extends them in the case of RP^2. We begin by recalling the situation for the Artin braid groups. As applications of our results, we answer the corresponding questions for the associated mapping class groups, and we show th…
We determine the lower central and derived series of the n-string braid groups B_n(RP^2) of the real projective plane. We are motivated in part by the study of Fadell-Neuwirth short exact sequences, but the problem is interesting in its own right. For n=1,2, B_n(RP^2) is finite and its lower central and derived series are known. If n>2 (resp. n>4), we show that the lower central (resp. derived) series of B_n(RP^2) is constant from the commutator subgroup onwards, and we exhibit a presentation of the commutator subgroup. In the exceptional cases n=3,4, we determine explicitly the complete deriv…
Sometime ago, we showed that a pure Artin braid group is not Kähler, i.e. it is not the fundamental group of a compact Kähler manifold. This used a result of Bressler, Ramachandran and the author that Kähler groups cannot be too "big". The goal here is to study the problem of Kählerness for other braid groups. The main result is that, with some trivial exceptions, the pure braid group of a Riemann surface with at least 2 strands is never Kähler. In some cases the proof uses the previous strategy, for others it plays off some homological properties of braid groups established beforehand against…
We study the pure braid groups $P_n(RP^2)$ of the real projective plane $RP^2$, and in particular the possible splitting of the Fadell-Neuwirth short exact sequence $1 \to P_m(RP^2 {x_1,...,x_n} \to P_{n+m}(RP^2) \stackrel{p_{\ast}}{\to} P_n(RP^2) \to 1$, where $n\geq 2$ and $m\geq 1$, and $p_{\ast}$ is the homomorphism which corresponds geometrically to forgetting the last $m$ strings. This problem is equivalent to that of the existence of a section for the associated fibration $p: F_{n+m}(RP^2) \to F_n(RP^2)$ of configuration spaces. Van Buskirk proved in 1966 that $p$ and $p_{\ast}$ admit a…
Ng and Schauenburg proved that the kernel of a $(2+1)$-dimensional topological quantum field theory representation of $\mathrm{SL}(2, \mathbb{Z})$ is a congruence subgroup. Motivated by their result, we explore when the kernel of an irreducible representation of the braid group $B_3$ with finite image enjoys a congruence subgroup property. In particular, we show that in dimensions two and three, when the projective order of the image of the braid generator $σ_1$ is between 2 and 5 the kernel projects onto a congruence subgroup of $\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{Z})$ and compute its level. However, we …
We give a survey of the theory of surface braid groups and the lower algebraic K-theory of their group rings. We recall several definitions and describe various properties of surface braid groups, such as the existence of torsion, orderability, linearity, and their relation both with mapping class groups and with the homotopy groups of the 2-sphere. The braid groups of the 2-sphere and the real projective plane are of particular interest because they possess elements of finite order, and we discuss in detail their torsion and the classification of their finite and virtually cyclic subgroups. F…
Using a quiver algebra of a cyclic quiver, we construct a faithful categorical action of the extended braid group of affine type A on its bounded homotopy category of finitely generated projective modules. The algebra is trigraded and we identify the trigraded dimensions of the space of morphisms of this category with intersection numbers coming from the topological origin of the group.
We give generators for a certain complex hyperbolic braid group. That is, we remove a hyperplane arrangement from complex hyperbolic $13$-space, take the quotient of the remaining space by a discrete group, and find generators for the orbifold fundamental group of the quotient. These generators have the most natural form: loops corresponding to the hyperplanes which come nearest the basepoint. Our results support the conjecture that motivated this study, the "monstrous proposal", which posits a relationship between this braid group and the monster finite simple group.
We show that the limiting Khovanov chain complex of any infinite positive braid categorifies the Jones-Wenzl projector. This result extends Lev Rozansky's categorification of the Jones-Wenzl projectors using the limiting complex of infinite torus braids. We also show a similar result for the limiting Lipshitz-Sarkar-Khovanov homotopy types of the closures of such braids. Extensions to more general infinite braids are also considered.
We consider the braid groups $\mathbf{B}_n(X)$ on finite simplicial complexes $X$, which are generalizations of those on both manifolds and graphs that have been studied already by many authors. We figure out the relationships between geometric decompositions for $X$ and their effects on braid groups, and provide an algorithmic way to compute the group presentations for $\mathbf{B}_n(X)$ with the aid of them. As applications, we give complete criteria for both the surface embeddability and planarity for $X$, which are the torsion-freeness of the braid group $\mathbf{B}_n(X)$ and its abelianiza…
The genus of knots is a one of the fundamental invariant and can be seen as a complexity of knots. In this paper, we give a lower bound of genus using Dehornoy floor, which is a measure of complexity of braids in terms of braid ordering.
We study the fixed point theory of n-valued maps of a space X using the fixed point theory of maps between X and its configuration spaces. We give some general results to decide whether an n-valued map can be deformed to a fixed point free n-valued map. In the case of surfaces, we provide an algebraic criterion in terms of the braid groups of X to study this problem. If X is either the k-dimensional ball or an even-dimensional real or complex projective space, we show that the fixed point property holds for n-valued maps for all n $\ge$ 1, and we prove the same result for even-dimensional sphe…
We prove that the word problem in the mapping class group of the once-punctured surface of genus g has complexity O(|w|^2 g for |w| > log(g) where |w| is the length of the word in a (standard) set of generators. The corresponding bound in the case of the closed surface is O(|w|^2 g^2). We also carry out the same methods for the braid groups, and show that this gives a bound which improves the best known bound in this case; namely, the complexity of the word problem in the n-braid group is O(|w|^2 n), for |w| > log n. We state a similar result for mapping class groups of surfaces with several p…
We study the problem of finding generators for the fundamental group G of a space of the following sort: one removes a family of complex hyperplanes from n dimensional complex vector space, or n dimensional complex hyperbolic space, or the Hermitian symmetric space for O(2,n), and then takes the quotient by a discrete group $PΓ$. The classical example is the braid group, but there are many similar "braid-like" groups that arise in topology and algebraic geometry. Our main result is that if $PΓ$ contains reflections in the hyperplanes nearest the basepoint, and these reflections satisfy a certa…
After reviewing recent results on symplectic Lefschetz pencils and symplectic branched covers of CP^2, we describe a new construction of maps from symplectic manifolds of any dimension to CP^2 and the associated monodromy invariants. We also show that a dimensional induction process makes it possible to describe any compact symplectic manifold by a series of words in braid groups and a word in a symmetric group.
We ask if any finite type generalized braid group is a subgroup of some classical Artin braid group. We define a natural map from a given finite type generalized braid group to a classical braid group and ask if this map is an injective homomorphism. We prove that this map is a homomorphism for the braid groups of type A_n, B_n, I_2(k). The injectivity question of this homomorphism (in these particular cases) is not yet settled. If this map is an injective homomorphism then several results will follow. For example it will follow that the Whitehead group, projective class group and the lower K-…
In [V.O. Manturov, Non-reidemeister knot theory and its applications in dynamical systems, geometry, and topology, arxiv:1501.05208] the first named author gave the definition of $k$-free braid groups $G_n^k$. Here we establish connections between free braid groups, classical braid groups and free groups: we describe explicitly the homomorphism from (pure) braid group to $k$-free braid groups for important cases $k=3,4$. On the other hand, we construct a homomorphism from (a subgroup of) free braid groups to free groups. The relations established would allow one to construct new invariants of …
Braids can be represented geometrically as curve diagrams. The geometric complexity of a braid is the minimal complexity of a curve diagram representing it. We introduce and study the corresponding notion of geometric generating function. We compute explicitly the geometric generating function for the group of braids on three strands and prove that it is neither rational nor algebraic, nor even holonomic. This result may appear as counterintuitive. Indeed, the standard complexity (due to the Artin presentation of braid groups) is algorithmically harder to compute than the geometric complexity,…
We describe the fundamental groups of ordered and unordered $k-$point sets in the n-dimensional complex space $C^n$ generating an affine subspace of fixed dimension.
We describe a series of complexes that relate to the braid groups as the matching complexes relate to the symmetric groups. A modified construction applies as well to other complexes based on edge sets in graphs. We show that our constructions will yield Cohen-Macauley complexes provided the underlying complexes are Cohen-Macauley. Finally, we discuss a related series of complexes to provide some positive evidence that the braided Houghton groups, introduced by F. Degenhardt, are a series of groups with linearly increasing finiteness length as are the (unbraided) Houghton groups.
We show that for any given n, there exists a sequence of words a_k in the generators sigma_1, ... sigma_{n-1} of the braid group B_n, representing the identity element of B_n, such that the number of braid relations of the form sigma_i sigma_{i+1} sigma_i = sigma_{i+1} sigma_i sigma_{i+1} needed to pass from a_k to the empty word is quadratic with respect to the length of a_k.
We prove Farber's conjecture on the stable topological complexity of configuration spaces of graphs. The conjecture follows from a general lower bound derived from recent insights into the topological complexity of aspherical spaces. Our arguments apply equally to higher topological complexity.
Artin groups of finite type are not as well understood as braid groups. This is due to the additional geometric properties of braid groups coming from their close connection to mapping class groups. For each Artin group of finite type, we construct a space (simplicial complex) analogous to Teichmueller space that satisfies a weak nonpositive curvature condition and also a space "at infinity" analogous to the space of projective measured laminations. Using these constructs, we deduce several group-theoretic properties of Artin groups of finite type that are well-known in the case of braid group…
We construct a finite dimensional quiver algebra from the non-simply laced type $B$ Dynkin diagram, which we call the type $B$ zigzag algebra. This leads to a faithful categorical action of the type $B$ braid group $\mathcal{A}(B)$, acting on the homotopy category of its projective modules. This categorical action is also closely related to the topological action of $\mathcal{A}(B)$, viewed as mapping class group of the punctured disc -- hence our exposition can be seen as a type $B$ analogue of Khovanov-Seidel's work in arXiv:math/0006056v2. Moreover, we show that certain category of bimodule…
Several distinct Garside monoids having torus knot groups as groups of fractions are known. For $n,m\geq 2$ two coprime integers, we introduce a new Garside monoid $\mathcal{M}(n,m)$ having as Garside group the $(n,m)$-torus knot group, thereby generalizing to all torus knot groups a construction that we previously gave for the $(n,n+1)$-torus knot group. As a byproduct, we obtain new Garside structures for the braid groups of a few exceptional complex reflection groups of rank two. Analogous Garside structures are also constructed for a few additional braid groups of exceptional complex refle…
We use rational formality of configuration spaces and the bar construction to study the cohomology of the space of braids in dimension four or greater. We provide a diagram complex for braids and a quasi-isomorphism to the de Rham cochains on the space of braids. The quasi-isomorphism is given by a configuration space integral followed by Chen's iterated integrals. This extends results of Kohno and of Cohen and Gitler on the cohomology of the space of braids to a CDGA suitable for integration. We show that this integration is compatible with Bott-Taubes configuration space integrals for long l…
The graph braid group of a complete bipartite graph is the fundamental group of a configuration space of points on the graph, which is a CAT(0) cube complex. We combine an analysis of the topology of links of vertices in this complex, the description of a hidden symmetry among the parameters, and known results from the literature to explicitly compute the exact degree to which these complexes and groups are connected at infinity.
We try to give a cluster algebraic interpretation of complex volume of knots. We construct the R-operator from the cluster mutations, and we show that it is regarded as a hyperbolic octahedron. The cluster variables are interpreted as edge parameters used by Zickert in computing complex volume.
Let $n,m\in \mathbb{N}$, and let $B_{n,m}(\mathbb{R}P^2)$ be the set of $(n + m)$-braids of the projective plane whose associated permutation lies in the subgroup $S_n\times S_m$ of the symmetric group $S_{n+m}$. We study the splitting problem of the following generalisation of the Fadell-Neuwirth short exact sequence: $$1\rightarrow B_m(\mathbb{R}P^2 \setminus \{x_1,\dots,x_n\})\rightarrow B_{n,m}(\mathbb{R}P^2)\xrightarrow{\bar{q}} B_n(\mathbb{R}P^2)\rightarrow 1,$$ where the map $\bar{q}$ can be considered geometrically as the epimorphism that forgets the last $m$ strands, as well as the ex…
We exhibit some families of subgroups of the pure braid group that are highly generating, in the sense of Abels and Holz. In one class of examples, the relevant geometric object is a complex termed the restricted arc complex of a surface. Another arises by considering "dangling braiges," introduced by Bux, Fluch, Schwandt, Witzel and the author.
The n-strand braid group can be defined as the fundamental group of the configuration space of n unlabeled points in a closed disk based at a configuration where all n points lie in the boundary of the disk. Using this definition, the subset of braids that have a representative where a specified subset of these points remain pointwise fixed forms a subgroup isomorphic to a braid group with fewer strands. In this article, we generalize this phenomenon by introducing the notion of boundary braids. A boundary braid is a braid that has a representative where some specified subset of the points rem…
We define virtual braid groups of type B and construct a morphism from such a group to the group of isomorphism classes of some invertible complexes of bimodules up to homotopy.
Choose any oriented link type X and closed braid representatives X[+], X[-] of X, where X[-] has minimal braid index among all closed braid representatives of X. The main result of this paper is a `Markov theorem without stabilization'. It asserts that there is a complexity function and a finite set of `templates' such that (possibly after initial complexity-reducing modifications in the choice of X[+] and X[-]which replace them with closed braids X[+]', X[-]') there is a sequence of closed braid representatives X[+]' = X^1->X^2->...->X^r = X[-]' such that each passage X^i->X^i+1 is strictly c…
We begin with a review of the notion of a braid group. We then discuss some known solutions to decision problems in braid groups. We then move on to proving new results in braid group algorithmics. We offer a quick solution to the generalized word problem in braid groups, in the special case of cyclic subgroups. We illustrate this solution and its complexity using a multitape Turing machine. We then turn to a discussion of decision problems in cyclic amalgamations of groups. Again using a multitape Turing machine, we solve the word problem for the cyclic amalgamation of two braid groups. We an…
We show that the limiting unicolored $\mathfrak{sl}(N)$ Khovanov-Rozansky chain complex of any infinite positive braid categorifies a highest-weight projector. This result extends an earlier result of Cautis categorifying highest-weight projectors using the limiting complex of infinite torus braids. Additionally, we show that the results hold in the case of colored HOMFLY-PT Khovanov-Rozansky homology as well. An application of this result is given in finding a partial isomorphism between the HOMFLY-PT homology of any braid positive link and the stable HOMFLY-PT homology of the infinite torus …
We consider the universal family $E_n^d$ of superelliptic curves: each curve $Σ_n^d$ in the family is a $d$-fold covering of the unit disk, totally ramified over a set $P$ of $n$ distinct points; $Σ_n^d\hookrightarrow E_n^d\to C_n$ is a fibre bundle, where $C_n$ is the configuration space of $n$ distinct points. We find that $E_n^d$ is the classifying space for the complex braid group of type $B(d,d,n)$ and we compute a big part of the integral homology of $E_n^d,$ including a complete calculation of the stable groups over finite fields by means of Poincarè series. The computation of the main …
We exhibit new examples of double Kodaira fibrations by using finite Galois covers of a product $Σ_b \times Σ_b$, where $Σ_b$ is a smooth projective curve of genus $b \geq 2$. Each cover is obtained by providing an explicit group epimorphism from the pure braid group $\mathsf{P}_2(Σ_b)$ to some finite Heisenberg group. In this way, we are able to show that every curve of genus $b$ is the base of a double Kodaira fibration; moreover, the number of pairwise non-isomorphic Kodaira fibred surfaces fibering over a fixed curve $Σ_b$ is at least $\boldsymbolω(b+1)$, where $\boldsymbolω \colon \mathbb…
We study the centralizer of a braid from the point of view of Garside theory, showing that generically a minimal set of generators can be computed very efficiently, as the ultra summit set of a generic braid has a very particular structure. We present an algorithm to compute the centralizer of a braid whose generic-case complexity is quadratic on the length of the input, and which outputs a minimal set of generators in the generic case.
Following an idea of Gonçalvez, Guaschi and Ocampo on the usual braid group we construct crystallographic and Bieberbach groups as (sub)quotients of the generalized braid group associated to an arbitrary complex reflection group.