Virtual and universal braid groups, their quotients and representations (Q2150900)

The braid group has various generalizations, such as the virtual braid group, the welded braid group, the flat virtual braid group, the flat welded braid group, and more. These groups turn up in various places of geometry and algebra, but most notably they are studied in relation with the corresponding generalizations of knots. In this aspect, linear representations of the braid-like groups play an important role, because via some notion of trace they may imply invariants in the respective generalized knot theory. The authors of the paper under review construct an \(n(n-1)/2\)-dimensional representation of the braid group, and a related same-dimensional representation of the virtual braid group, over certain Laurent polynomial rings. These representations appear new, but are related to the Lawrence-Bigelow-Krammer construction. It is proved that the representations induce faithful representation on the quotient by the respective pure braid groups. The authors apply their construction to study natural combinatorial group theory problems on their braid-like groups, such as torsion, normal forms, and decomposition statements (for small \(n\)).