Least dilatation of pure surface braids (Q2000785)

The \textit{\(n\)-stranded pure braid group} \(\mathrm{PB}_n(S_g)\) of a surface \(S_g\) of genus \(g\) is the kernel of the ``forgetful map'' from the pure mapping class group \(\mathrm{PMod}(S_{g,n})\) of a surface \(S_{g,n}\) of genus \(g\) with \(n\) punctures (i.e., fixing all punctures) to the mapping class group \(\mathrm{Mod}(S_g)\) of the closed surface \(S_g\), by filling in all punctures (\(\mathrm{PB}_n(S_g)\) is isomorphic to the fundamental group of the configuration space of ordered \(n\)-tuples of points on \(S_g\)). Given a pseudo-Anosov mapping class \(f \in \mathrm{PB}_n(S_g)\), its entropy is equal to \(\log(f)\) where \(\lambda(f)\) denotes its dilatation. Supposing \(g \ge 2\) and \(n \ge 1\), the main result of the present paper gives upper and lower bounds for the least entropy \(L(\mathrm{PB}_n(S_g))\) of pseudo-Anosov mapping classes \(f\) in \(\mathrm{PB}_n(S_g)\); in particular, \(L(\mathrm{PB}_n(S_g))\) is bounded away from 0 and, for any fixed number \(n\) of punctures, tends to infinity as \(g\) tends to infinity. Analogous bounds for the whole mapping class group \(\mathrm{Mod}(S_g)\) of a closed surface have been given by \textit{R. C. Penner} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 113, No. 2, 443--450 (1991; Zbl 0726.57013)], and by \textit{C.-Y. Tsai} for the mapping class group \(\mathrm{Mod}(S_{g,n})\) of a surface with \(n\) punctures [Geom. Topol. 13, No. 4, 2253--2278 (2009; Zbl 1204.37043)]; in contrast to the above results for \(\mathrm{PB}_n(S_g)\), in these cases \(L(\mathrm{Mod}(S_g))\) goes to 0 as \(g\) tends to infinity and, for a fixed \(g\), \(L(\mathrm{Mod}(S_{g,n}))\) goes to 0 as \(n\) tends to infinity.