Related papers: Divisor braids
The anomaly of non-invertible higher-form symmetries is determined by the braiding of topological operators implementing them. In this paper, we study a method to classify braidings on topological line and surface operators by leveraging…
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…
Recent work suggests that topological features of certain quantum gravity theories can be interpreted as particles, matching the known fermions and bosons of the first generation in the Standard Model. This is achieved by identifying…
In this paper we study abelian and metabelian quotients of braid groups on oriented surfaces with boundary components. We provide group presentations and we prove rigidity results for these quotients arising from exact sequences related to…
Let $\Sigma_g$ denote the closed orientable surface of genus $g$ and fix an arbitrary simplicial triangulation of $\Sigma_g$. We construct and study a natural surjective group homomorphism from the surface braid group on $n$ strands on…
We show that branched coverings of surfaces of large enough genus arise as characteristic maps of braided surfaces that is, lift to embeddings in the product of the surface with $\mathbb R^2$. This result is nontrivial already for…
Let $G$ be a graph whose edges are each assigned one of the $m$-colours $1, 2, \ldots, m$, and let $\Gamma$ be a subgroup of $S_m$. The operation of switching at a vertex $x$ with respect $\pi \in \Gamma$ permutes the colours of the edges…
This paper is concerned with detecting when a closed braid and its axis are 'mutually braided' in the sense of Rudolph. It deals with closed braids which are fibred links, the simplest case being closed braids which present the unknot. The…
The space of unordered configurations of distinct points in the plane is aspherical, with Artin's braid group as its fundamental group. Remarkably enough, the space of ordered configurations of distinct points on the real projective line,…
Braiding is a geometric concept that manifests itself in a variety of scientific contexts from biology to physics, and has been employed to classify bulk band topology in topological materials. Topological edge states can also form braiding…
We exhibit new examples of double Kodaira fibrations by using finite Galois covers of a product $\Sigma_b \times \Sigma_b$, where $\Sigma_b$ is a smooth projective curve of genus $b \geq 2$. Each cover is obtained by providing an explicit…
This paper will appear in the Santa Cruz proceedings. An overview of the braid group techniques in the theory of algebraic surfaces, from Zariski to the latest results, is presented. An outline of the Van Kampen algorithm for computing…
We study the large-scale geometry of graph braid groups $\mathbb{B}_n(\mathsf{\Gamma})$, viewed as the fundamental groups of discrete configuration spaces $UD_n(\mathsf{\Gamma})$, which are special cube complexes in the sense of…
The closure of a braid in a closed orientable surface $\Sigma$ is a link in $\Sigma\times S^1$. We classify such closed surface braids up to isotopy and homeomorphism (with a small indeterminacy for isotopy of closed sphere braids),…
Non-trivial braid-group representations appear as non-Abelian quantum statistics of emergent Majorana zero modes in one and two-dimensional topological superconductors. Here, we generate such representations with topologically protected…
We introduce and study a family of groups $\mathbf{BB}_n$, called the blocked-braid groups, which are quotients of Artin's braid groups $\mathbf{B}_n$, and have the corresponding symmetric groups $\Sigma_n$ as quotients. They are defined by…
Let $\Sigma_b$ be a closed Riemann surface of genus $b$. We give an account of some results obtained in the recent papers \cite{CaPol19, Pol20, PolSab21} and concerning what we call here \emph{pure braid quotients},namely non-abelian finite…
This paper describes connected components of the strata of holomorphic abelian differentials on marked Riemann surfaces with prescribed degrees of zeros. Unlike the case for unmarked Riemann surfaces, we find there can be many connected…
The semistable minimal model program is a special case of the minimal model program concerning 3-folds fibred over a curve and birational morphisms preserving this structure. We classify semistable divisorial contractions which contract the…
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…