The \(R_\infty\) property for pure Artin braid groups (Q2664014)

Given a group \(G\) and its endomorphism \(\alpha\), write \(R(\alpha)\) for the Reidemeister number of \(\alpha\) which is either a positive integer or \(\infty\). There is currently a growing interest in the study of groups \(G\) that have the \(R_\infty\) property, these are groups for which \(R(\alpha)=\infty\) for any automorphism \(\alpha\in \mathrm{Aut}(G)\). It was shown by \textit{A. Fel'shtyn} and \textit{D. L. Gonçalves} [Geom. Dedicata 146, 211--223 (2010; Zbl 1251.20032)] that the Artin braid groups \(B_n\) also have property \(R_\infty\). The goal of this paper is to prove that the same holds for all pure Artin braid groups \(P_n\) (\(n \ge 3\)). In order to obtain this result, the authors analyse the naturally induced morphism \(\mathrm{Aut}(P_n)\to \mathrm{Aut}(\Gamma_2(P_n)/\Gamma_3(P_n))\) which turns out to factor through a representation \(\rho : S_{n+1}\to \mathrm{Aut}(\Gamma_2(P_n)/\Gamma_3(P_n))\). Here, \(\Gamma_i (P_n)\) stands for the \(i\)-th term of the lower central series of \(P_n\) and \(S_{n+1}\) for the symmetric group on \(n+1\) letters. Then, representation theory of symmetric groups is used to prove that any automorphism \(\alpha\) of \(P_n\) acts on the free abelian group \(\Gamma_2(P_n)/\Gamma_3(P_n)\). This allows the authors to conclude that the Reidemeister number \(R(\alpha)\) of \(\alpha\) is \(\infty\).