Related papers: Applications of Braid Group Techniques to algebrai…
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 take the fundamental group of the complement of the branch curve of a generic projection induced from canonical embedding of a surface. This group is stable on connected components of moduli spaces of surfaces. Since for many classes of…
We consider the braid groups $\mathbf{B}_n(X)$ on finite simplicial complexes $X$, which are generalizations of those on both manifolds and graphs that have been studied already by many authors. We figure out the relationships between…
Given a singular surface X, one can extract information on it by investigating the fundamental group $\pi_1(X - Sing_X)$. However, calculation of this group is non-trivial, but it can be simplified if a certain invariant of the branch curve…
We consider finite-sheeted, regular, possibly branched covering spaces of compact surfaces with boundary and the associated liftable and symmetric mapping class groups. In particular, we classify when either of these subgroups coincides…
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…
Computation of the fundamental group of the complement in the complex plane of the branch curve S , of a generic projection of the Veronese surface to the plane is presented. This paper is a continuation of our previous papers: Braid Group…
We discuss the equivalence between the categories of certain ribbon graphs and subgroups of the modular group $\Gamma$ and use it to construct exponentially large families of not Hurwitz equivalent simple braid monodromy factorizations of…
We relate the existence of some surfaces of general type and maximal Albanese dimension to the existence of some monodromy representations of the braid group $\mathsf{B}_2(C_2)$ in the symmetric group $\mathsf{S}_n$. Furthermore, we compute…
Given a projective surface and a generic projection to the plane, the braid monodromy factorization (and thus, the braid monodromy type) of the complement of its branch curve is one of the most important topological invariants, stable on…
Monodromy groups, i.e. the groups of isometries of the intersection lattice L_X:=H_2/torsion generated by the monodromy action of all deformation families of a given surface, have been computed in math.AG/0006231 for any minimal elliptic…
Bidouble covers $\pi : S \mapsto Q$ of the quadric Q are parametrized by connected families depending on four positive integers a,b,c,d. In the special case where b=d we call them abc-surfaces. Such a Galois covering $\pi$ admits a small…
We consider spaces of plane curves in the setting of algebraic geometry and of singularity theory. On one hand there are the complete linear systems, on the other we consider unfolding spaces of bivariate polynomials of Brieskorn-Pham type.…
In this article, we compute the braid monodromy of two algebraic curves defined over R. These two curves are of complex level not bigger than 6, and they are unions of lines and conics. We use two different techniques for computing their…
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…
We combine the newly discovered technique, which computes explicit formulas for the image of an algebraic curve under rational transformation, with techniques that enable to compute braid monodromies of such curves. We use this combination…
Braid monodromy is an important tool for computing invariants of curves and surfaces. In this paper, the \emph{rectangular braid diagram (RBD)} method is proposed to compute the braid monodromy of a completely reducible $n$-gonal curve,…
Moduli spaces of points on $n$-spheres carry natural actions of braid groups. For $n=0$, $1$, and $3$, we prove that these symmetries extend to actions of mapping class groups of positive genus surfaces, by establishing exceptional…
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…
Chiral conformal blocks in a rational conformal field theory are a far going extension of Gauss hypergeometric functions. The associated monodromy representations of Artin's braid group capture the essence of the modern view on the subject,…