Braids, mapping class groups, and categorical delooping (Q2458842)

This paper studies a family of group homomorphisms \(\phi:\beta_{2g}\to\Gamma_{g,1}\) from the braid group on \(2g\) strings to the mapping class group of an oriented genus \(g\) surface with one boundary component. These arise from the fact that Dehn twists satisfy the braid relations. They extend to a homomorphism \(\beta_\infty\to\Gamma_\infty\) of the corresponding stable groups. The main result is that the map induced in homology by this homomorphism is trivial, proving a conjecture of Harer. Work of \textit{J. S. Maginnis} [Braids and mapping class groups. PhD thesis, Stanford University (1987)] shows that the map induced by \(\phi\) from \(\coprod_{g\geq 0} B\beta_{2g}\) to \(\coprod_{g\geq 0} B\Gamma_{g,1}\) is not a map of double loop spaces. The main point here is to show that nevertheless the induced map on group completions \(\phi:B\beta_\infty^+\to B\Gamma_\infty^+\) is a double loop map. A straightforward lemma, using that \(B\beta_\infty^+\simeq \Omega^2S^3\) is the free double loop space on \(S^1\), then shows that any such map is trivial in homology. Categorial delooping techniques are used. Thus \(\phi\) is extended to a monoidal functor \(\Phi:\mathcal{T}\to \mathcal{S}\) between monoidal \(2\)-categories. Then the induced map \(\Omega B\Phi: \Omega B\mathcal{T}\to \Omega B\mathcal{S}\) is automatically a double loop map. Here \(\mathcal{S}\) is the surface category of [\textit{U. Tillmann}, Invent. Math. 130, No. 2, 257--275 (1997; Zbl 0891.55019)] with \(\Omega B\mathcal{S}\simeq \mathbb{Z}\times B\Gamma_\infty^+\). The category \(\mathcal{T}\) is a monoidal \(2\)-category built out of braids and it may be thought of as a special type of cobordism category. Although \(\Omega B\mathcal{T}\) is not homotopy equivalent to \(\mathbb{Z}\times B\beta_\infty^+\), it is shown that \(\phi\) factors through the identity component \(\Omega_0 B\mathcal{T}\) which has a splitting as a double loop space as \(\Omega^2S^3\times \Omega^2 W\) (where the homotopy type of \(W\) is unknown). An appendix is devoted to proving analogous results for two geometrically defined maps, defined by identifying the braid group as a subgroup of the mapping class group of a subsurface.