We give a simple topological construction of the Burau representations of the loop braid groups. There are four versions: defined either on the non-extended or extended loop braid groups, and in each case there is an unreduced and a reduced version. Three are not surprising, and one could easily guess the correct matrices to assign to generators. The fourth is more subtle, and does not seem combinatorially obvious, although it is topologically very natural.
We establish strong constraints on the kernel of the (reduced) Burau representation $β_4:B_4\to \text{GL}_3\left(\mathbb{Z}\left[q^{\pm 1}\right]\right)$ of the braid group $B_4$. We develop a theory to explicitly determine the entries of the Burau matrices of braids in $B_4$, and this is an important step toward demonstrating that $β_4$ is faithful (a longstanding question posed in the 1930s). The theory is based on a novel combinatorial interpretation of $β_4\left(g\right)$, in terms of the Garside normal form of $g\in B_4$ and a new product decomposition of positive braids. We develop cance…
A previous work of A. Conway and the author introduced $L^2$-Burau maps of braids, which are generalizations of the Burau representation whose coefficients live in a more general group ring than the one of Laurent polynomials. This same work established that the $L^2$-Burau map of a braid at the group of the braid closure yields the $L^2$-Alexander torsion of the braid closure in question, as a variant of the well-known Burau-Alexander formula. In the present paper, we generalize the previous result to $L^2$-Burau maps defined over all quotients of the group of the braid closure. The link inva…
We study the kernel of the evaluated Burau representation through the braid element $σ_i σ_{i+1} σ_i$. The element is significant as a part of the standard braid relation. We establish the form of this element's image raised to the $n^{th}$ power. Interestingly, the cyclotomic polynomials arise and can be used to define the expression. The main result of this paper is that the Burau representation of the braid group of $n$ strands for $n \geq 3$ is unfaithful at any primitive root of unity, excepting the first three.
The Burau representation is a fundamental bridge between the braid group and diverse other topics in mathematics. A 1974 question of Birman asks for a description of the image; in this paper we give a "strong approximation" to the answer. Since a 1984 paper of Squier it has been known that the Burau representation preserves a certain Hermitian form. We show that the Burau image is dense in this unitary group relative to a topology induced by a naturally-occurring filtration. We expect that the methods of the paper should extend to many other representations of the braid group and perhaps ultim…
Burau representation of the Artin braid group remains as one of the very important representations for the braid group. Partly, because of its connections to the Alexander polynomial which is one of the first and most useful invariants for knots and links. In the present work, we show that interesting representations of braid group could be achieved using a simple and intuitive approach, where we simply analyse the path of strands in a braid and encode the over-crossings, under-crossings or no-crossings into some parameters. More precisely, at each crossing, where, for example, the strand $i$ …
We present a reduced Burau-like representation for the mixed braid group on one strand representing links in lens spaces and show how to calculate the Alexander polynomial of a link directly from the mixed braid.
\begin{abstract} The reduced Burau representation is a natural action of the braid group $B_n$ on the first homology group $H_1({\tilde{D}}_n;\mathbb{Z})$ of a suitable infinite cyclic covering space ${\tilde{D}}_n$ of the $n$--punctured disc $D_n$. It is known that the Burau representation is faithful for $n\le 3$ and that it is not faithful for $n\ge 5$. We use forks and noodles homological techniques and Bokut--Vesnin generators to analyze the problem for $n=4$. We present a Conjecture implying faithfulness and a Lemma explaining the implication. We give some arguments suggesting why we exp…
By evaluating the Burau representation at t=-1, we obtain a symplectic representation of the braid group. We define the congruence subgroups of the braid group to be the preimages of the principal congruence subgroups of the symplectic group. Our main result is that the level four congruence subgroup of the braid group is equal to the group generated by squares of Dehn twists and is also equal to the group generated by squares of pure braids. We also compute the image of the point pushing subgroup under the symplectic representation.
In 1996, Tong, Yang and Ma defined a family of representations of the braid group which have the same dimensions as the (unreduced) Burau representations but are not equivalent. The Burau representation was defined homologically and extended to the string links in several ways. In this paper, using the method of Silver and Williams, we extend the family of the Tong-Yang-Ma representations to the string links and welded string links. Moreover, we show that the kernels of these representations may be described using some linking numbers. Finally, we apply the Long-Moody construction to the Tong-…
The integral Burau representation provides a map from the braid group into a group of integral matrices. This allows for a definition of congruence subgroups of the braid group as the preimage of the usual principal congruence subgroups of integral matrices. We explore the structure these congruence subgroups by examining some of the quotients that may arise in the series induced by divisibility of levels. We build on the work of Stylianakis on symmetric quotients of congruence subgroups, which itself generalizes the quotient of the braid group by the pure braid group. We accomplish this by ut…
Taking the Levine-Tristram signature of the closure of a braid defines a map from the braid group to the integers. A formula of Gambaudo and Ghys provides an evaluation of the homomorphism defect of this map in terms of the Burau representation and the Meyer cocycle. In 2017 Cimasoni and Conway generalized this formula to the multivariable signature of the closure of coloured tangles. In the present paper, we extend even further their result by using a different 4-dimensional interpretation of the signature. We obtain an evaluation of the additivity defect in terms of the Maslov index and the …
We investigate the cohomology of the level 4 subgroup of the braid group, namely, the kernel of the mod 4 reduction of the Burau representation at $t=-1$. This group is also equal to the kernel of the mod 2 abelianization of the pure braid group. We give an exact formula for the first Betti number; it is a quartic polynomial in the number of strands. We also show that, like the pure braid group, the first homology satisfies uniform representation stability in the sense of Church and Farb. Unlike the pure braid group, the group of symmetries - the quotient of the braid group by the level 4 subg…
