Related papers: On the Burau representation of $B_3$ modulo $p$
We study two classical representations of Artin's braid group and their modulo $p$ reductions. We use topological methods to show that the Gassner representation $\tau_n: B_n\to\text{GL}_n(\mathbb{Z}[t_1^{\pm 1}, \ldots, t_n^{\pm 1}])$ is…
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…
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…
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…
We establish a link between the new theory of $q$-deformed rational numbers and the classical Burau representation of the braid group $\mathrm{B}_3$. We apply this link to the open problem of classification of faithful complex…
We show that a certain linear representation of the singular braid monoid on three strands is faithful. Furthermore we will give a second - group theoretically motivated - solution to the word problem in this monoid.
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 $n\geq d$.
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…
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…
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…
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…
In this paper we survey some work on representations of $B_n$ given by the induced action on a homology module of some space. One of these, called the Lawrence-Krammer representation, recently came to prominence when it was shown to be…
We consider subgroups of the braid groups which are generated by $k$-th powers of the standard generators and prove that any infinite intersection (with even $k$) is trivial. This is motivated by some conjectures of Squier concerning the…
\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 list the irreducible two dimensional complex representations of the Braid group B3 in elementary way. Then, we make a decomposition of the square of its irreducible Burau representation.
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…
It is known that the Burau representation of the 4-strand braid group is faithful if and only if certain matrices f and k generate a (non-abelian) free group. Regarding f and k as isometries of a euclidean building we show that f^3 and k^3…
We consider a certain modification of the group $G^3_n$ which describes dynamics of point configurations, in particular braids, and define a representation of the modified $G^3_n$. The braid representation induced is powerful enough to…
We consider quotients of the group algebra of the $3$-string braid group $B_3$ by $p$-th order generic polynomial relations on the elementary braids. In cases $p=2,3,4,5$ these quotient algebras are finite dimensional. We give…
This classification is found by analyzing the action of a normal subgroup of $B_3$ as hyperbolic isometries. This paper gives an example of an unfaithful specialization of the Burau representation on $B_4$ that is faithful when restricted…