On the linear representation of braid groups. II (Q1812882)

In part I [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 311, 535-560 (1989; Zbl 0714.20019)], it was shown that the Burau and Gassner representations of the braid and pure braid groups arise in a very natural way via a description of these groups as diffeomorphisms acting on representation varieties. The motivation for doing this is that it gives a somewhat broader picture than had been previously available for attacking the problems concerned with these representations. The focus of this paper is the beginning of an attempt to understand the restrictions on the diffeomorphisms which can occur in the image. This will be done by using the Lie structure; in particular a major role is played by the Campbell-Baker-Hausdorff formula, and some of the methods used in its proof.