Braid groups in complex spaces. (Q461408)

The fundamental group of the ordered (unordered) configuration space of \(k\) points in \(\mathbb C^n\), denoted by \(\mathcal F_n(\mathbb C^n)\) (\(\mathcal C_n(\mathbb C^n)\)), where \(\mathbb C\) is the complex numbers, is well known. The authors consider a stratification \(\mathcal F_n(\mathbb C^n)=\bigcup_{i=0}^n\mathcal F_k^{i,n}\), where \(\mathcal F_k^{i,n}\) is the ordered configuration space of all \(k\) distinct points \(p_1,\ldots,p_k\) in \(\mathbb C^n\) such that the dimension \(\dim\langle p_1,\ldots,p_k\rangle=i\). A similar strata is defined for \(\mathcal C_n(\mathbb C^n)\) and denoted by \(\mathcal C_k^{i,n}\). The goal of the paper is to compute the fundamental groups \(\pi_1(\mathcal F_k^{i,n})\) and \(\pi_1(\mathcal C_k^{i,n})\) for all values of \(i,k,n\). Let \(PB_n\) denote the pure Artin braid group of the plane on \(n\) strings and \(B_n\) the full Artin braid group on \(n\) strings. More precisely they show: Theorem 1.1: The spaces \(\mathcal F_k^{i,n}\) are simply connected except for \(i=1\) or \(i=n=k-1\). In these cases (1) \(\pi_1(\mathcal F_k^{1,1})=PB_k\), (2) \(\pi_1(\mathcal F_k^{1,n})=PB_k/\langle D_k\rangle\) when \(n>1\), (3) \(\pi_1(\mathcal F_{n+1}^{n,n})=\mathbb Z\) for all \(n\geq 1\). The fundamental group \(\pi_1(\mathcal C_k^{i,n})\) is isomorphic to the symmetric group \(\Sigma_k\) except for \(i=1\) or \(i=n=k-1\). In these cases: (1) \(\pi_1(\mathcal F_k^{1,1})=B_k\), (2) \(\pi_1(\mathcal C_k^{1,n})=B_k/\langle \Delta_k^2\rangle\) when \(n>1\), (3) \(\pi_1(\mathcal C_{n+1}^{n,n})=B_{n+1}/\langle\sigma_1^2=\sigma_2^2=\dots=\sigma_n^2\rangle\) when \(n>1\) . The element \(D_k\) is the full twist and \(\Delta_k\) is the fundamental Garside braid. A main ingredient of the proofs is the use of several fibrations which are constructed by geometric means, relating the strata and Grassmannian manifolds. -- The paper is well organized and the proofs are clearly written.