Alexander invariants of complex hyperplane arrangements

DOI10.1090/S0002-9947-99-02206-0MaRDI QIDQ4257573zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Daniel C. Cohen, Alexander I. Suciu

Publication date 31 August 1999

Published in Transactions of the American Mathematical Society (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/alg-geom/9703030

Alexander invariants braid monodromy homomorphisms Chen groups fundamental groups Gassner representation presentations pure braid groups

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Coverings of curves, fundamental group (14H30) Fundamental groups and their automorphisms (group-theoretic aspects) (20F34) Braid groups; Artin groups (20F36) Arrangements of points, flats, hyperplanes (aspects of discrete geometry) (52C35) Fundamental group, presentations, free differential calculus (57M05)

Abstract: Let A be an arrangement of complex hyperplanes. The fundamental group of the complement of A is determined by a braid monodromy homomorphism from a finitely generated free group to the pure braid group. Using the Gassner representation of the pure braid group, we find an explicit presentation for the Alexander invariant of A. From this presentation, we obtain combinatorial lower bounds for the ranks of the Chen groups of A. We also provide a combinatorial criterion for when these lower bounds are attained.

Review text

Let \(A=\{H_1,\dots,H_n\}\) be an arrangement of hyperplanes in \(\mathbb{C}^d\), with complement \(M=\mathbb{C}^d\setminus\bigcup_{i=1}^nH_i\) and group \(G=\pi_1(M)\). Let \(M'\) be the maximal Abelian cover, corresponding to the Abelianization \(ab\colon G\to\mathbb{Z}^n\). The object of this study is the Alexander invariant, \(B(A)=H_1(M')\), viewed as a module over the ring \(\Lambda\) of Laurent polynomials \(\Lambda=\mathbb{Z}[[t_1^{\pm 1},\dots,t_n^{\pm 1}]]\), with \(t_i\) corresponding to a standardly oriented meridional loop around \(H_i\). The fundamental group of the complement of \(A\) is determined by a braid monodromy homomorphism \(\alpha\colon F_s\to P_n\). Using the Gassner representation of the pure braid group, the authors find an explicit presentation for the Alexander invariant of \(A\). From this presentation, they obtain combinatorial lower bounds for the ranks of the Chen groups of \(A\), and also provide a combinatorial criterion for when these lower bounds are attained. Corollary 1.10. The ranks of the Chen groups of \(G=\pi_1(M_1\times M_2)\) are given by \(\theta_k(G)=\theta_k(G_1)+\theta_k(G_2)\), where \(G_i=\pi_1(M_i)\). Theorem 5.3. The Alexander invariant of an arrangement \(A\), with braid monodromy generators \(A_{V_1}^{\delta_1},\dots,A_{V_s}^{\delta_s}\), has presentation \(K_1\to K_0\to B(A)\to 0\), where \(K_1=\bigoplus_{k=1}^sC_1(V_k')\oplus C_3\), \(K_0=C_2\), and \(\Delta=(\Phi d_3)^\top\), with \(\Phi|_{C_1(V_k')}=\Theta_2(\delta_k)\circ\Phi_k\).

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