Related papers: Observed periodicity related to the four-strand Bu…

The Burau representation is a natural action of the braid group B_n on the free Z[t,t^{-1}]-module of rank n-1. It is a longstanding open problem to determine for which values of n this representation is faithful. It is known to be faithful…

\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…

We establish strong constraints on the kernel of the (reduced) Burau representation $\beta_4:B_4\to \text{GL}_3\left(\mathbb{Z}\left[q^{\pm 1}\right]\right)$ of the braid group $B_4$. We develop a theory to explicitly determine the entries…

We study the kernel of the evaluated Burau representation through the braid element $\sigma_i \sigma_{i+1} \sigma_i$. The element is significant as a part of the standard braid relation. We establish the form of this element's image raised…

We use a geometric approach to show that the reduced Burau representation specialized at roots of unity has another incarnation as the monodromy representation of a moduli space of Euclidean cone metrics on the sphere, as described by…

We establish relations between both the classical and the dual Garside structures of the braid group and the Burau representation. Using the classical structure, we formulate a non-vanishing criterion for the Burau representation of the…

We discuss the extension of the faithfulness question for the Burau representation of braid groups to the case of Artin--Tits groups. We prove that the Burau representation is not faithful in affine type $\tilde{A_3}$, and not faithful over…

While much is known about the faithfulness of the Burau representation, the problem remains open for the Gassner representation for every $B_n$ with $n\geq 4$. We first find the definition of the Colored-Burau representation of Ainshel,…

The problem of faithfulness of the (reduced) Burau representation for $n =4$ is known to be equivalent to the problem of whether certain two matrices $A$ and $B$ generate a free group of rank two. It is known that $A^3$ and $B^3$ generate a…

The Burau representation enables to define many other representations of the braid group $B_n$ by the topological operation of ``cabling braids''. We show here that these representations split into copies of the Burau representation itself…

In a previous work [11], the author considered a representation of the braid group \rho: B_n\to GL_m(\Bbb Z[q^{\pm 1},t^{\pm 1}]) (m=n(n-1)/2), and proved it to be faithful for n=4. Bigelow [3] then proved the same representation to be…

For $n\geq 2$, let $G_n$ be a group and let $\rho: B_n\rightarrow G_n$ be a representation of the braid group $B_n$. For a field $\mathbb{K}$ and $a,b,c\in \mathbb{K}$, Bardakov, Chbili, and Kozlovskaya extend the representation $\rho$ to a…

We present an algorithm that, given a prime $p$ as input, determines whether or not the Burau representation of the 3-strand braid group modulo $p$ is faithful. We also prove that the representation is indeed faithful when $p\le 13$.…

We prove that the image of the Full braid group $B_{n+1}$ on $n+1$ strands under the Burau representation, evaluated at a primitive $d$-th root of unity is arithmetic provided $n\geq d$.

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.…

We give a method to produce faithful representations of the groups $G(n,m)=\langle X, Y \ \vert \ X^m = Y^n \rangle$ in $\mathrm{GL}_2(\mathbb{C}[t^{\pm 1}, q^{\pm 1}])$. These groups are Garside groups and the Garside normal forms of…

We construct a linear representation of the group IA(F_n) of IA-automorphisms of a free group F_n, an extension of the Gassner representation of the pure braid group P_n. Although the problem of faithfulness of the Gassner representation is…

In 1974, Birman posed the problem of identifying the conditions under which a matrix with Laurent polynomial entries lies in the image of the Burau representation. Building on this, Salter, in 2021, refined the inquiry to ask whether the…

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…

Given a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) predicate $P \subseteq D^r$, the non-redundancy (NRD) of $P$ is maximum-sized instance on $n$ variables such that for every clause of the instance, there is an assignment which satisfies all but…