English

Braid groups and Burnside groups

Group Theory 2026-07-14 v1 Geometric Topology

Abstract

There exists an exceptional quotient of braid groups Br4Br3\text{Br}_4 \twoheadrightarrow \text{Br}_3 that is related to many interesting constructions in algebra, topology, and geometry. This quotient map also descends to a quotient of "truncated" braid groups Br4(d)Br3(d)\text{Br}_4(d) \twoheadrightarrow \text{Br}_3(d), which have an added torsion relation on their half twist generators. In this article, we find a presentation for the kernel of this truncated quotient map that takes the form of what we deem a "primitive" Burnside group. We give a few finiteness results on these primitive Burnside groups. Our methods are purely group theoretic, but we comment on an interpretation involving Lefschetz fibrations at the end.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.13316,
  title  = {Braid groups and Burnside groups},
  author = {Ethan Dlugie},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.13316},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

10 pages, 2 figures