Related papers: Local wild mapping class groups and cabled braids

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 introduce a family of maps parametrised by certain ribbon graphs. It is based on a connection in non-commutative geometry and contains the double divergence as a special case. Applying the construction to the case of the group algebra of…

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…

In this paper we study the reduction curves of a braid, and how they can be used to decompose the braid into simpler ones in a precise way, which does not correspond exactly to the decomposition given by Thurston theory. Then we study how a…

We construct several families of embeddings of braid groups into mapping class groups of orientable and non-orientable surfaces and prove that they induce the trivial map in stable homology in the orientable case, but not so in the…

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…

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,…

We will define and study (moduli) spaces of deformations of irregular classes on Riemann surfaces, which provide an intrinsic viewpoint on the `times' of irregular isomonodromy systems in general. Our aim is to study the deeper…

We classify homomorphisms from the braid group on $n$ strands to the pure mapping class group of a nonoriantable surface of genus $g$. For $n\ge 14$ and $g\le 2\lfloor{n/2}\rfloor+1$ every such homomorphism is either cyclic, or it maps…

We consider the space of embeddings of finitely many circles that bound disks in non-positively curved surfaces. We index the connected components of this space with finite rooted trees and show that the connected components are classifying…

We define orbifold mapping class groups (with marked points) and study them using their action on certain orbifold analogs of arcs and simple closed curves. Moreover, we establish a Birman exact sequence for suitable subgroups of orbifold…

We study the deformation theory of rational curves on primitive symplectic varieties and show that if the rational curves cover a divisor, then, as in the smooth case, they deform along their Hodge locus in the universal locally trivial…

When Daan Krammer and Stephen Bigelow independently proved that braid groups are linear, they used the Lawrence-Krammer-Bigelow representation for generic values of its variables q and t. The t variable is closely connected to the…

A new method for deriving universal \v{R} matrices from braid group representation is discussed. In this case, universal \v{R} operators can be defined and expressed in terms of products of braid group generators. The advantage of this…

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…

Pure braid groups and pure mapping class groups of a punctured sphere have many features in common. In the paper the graded Lie algebra of the descending central series of the pure mapping class of a sphere is studied. A simple presentation…

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,…

This article is a revised version of the talk I gave at the conference ``Beauville Surfaces and groups'' held in Newcastle in June 2012. It presents some group theoretical methods to give bounds on the number of connected components of the…

Let G be a graph. The (unlabeled) configuration space of n points on G is the space of all n-element subsets of G. The fundamental group of such a configuration space is called a graph braid group. We use a version of discrete Morse theory…

By analyzing known presentations of the pure mapping groups of orientable surfaces of genus $g$ with $b$ boundary components and $n$ punctures, we show that these groups are isomorphic to some groups related to the braid groups and the…