Congruence subgroups of braid groups and crystallographic quotients. I (Q7006291)

This paper studies the relationship between two families of groups, subgroups and quotients of classical braid groups: congruence subgroups of braid groups and crystallographic braid groups, introduced by \textit{V. I. Arnol'd} [Funct. Anal. Appl. 2, 187--189 (1968; Zbl 0192.58201); translation from Funkts. Anal. Prilozh. 2, No. 3, 1--3 (1968)] and \textit{J. Tits} [J. Algebra 4, 96--116 (1966; Zbl 0145.24703)], respectively. In the context of groups of matrices, a congruence subgroup of a matrix group with integer entries is a subgroup defined as the kernel of the mod \(m\) reduction of a linear group. In this spirit, one can define congruence subgroups of any group via a choice of representation into \(\mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb{Z})\). Let \(B_n\) be the braid group on \(n\) strands. Using the Burau representation of braid group, it is possible to define a symplectic representation and use it to define congruence subgroups of braid groups \(B_n[m]\).\N\NThe crystallographic groups, appearing in the study of isometries of Euclidean spaces. Congruence subgroups and crystallographic structures share a point of contact. It follows by Arnol'd [loc. cit.] that the pure braid group \(P_n\) can be characterized as the congruence subgroup \(B_n[2]\). It is natural to ask how congruence subgroups of braid groups and crystallographic groups are related?\N\NIn the present paper, the following general result about crystallographic groups is proved (see Theorem 3.4):\N\NLet \(1 \to K \to G \overset{p}{\to} Q \to 1\) be a short exact sequence, where \(K\) is a free abelian group of finite rank, \(Q\) is a finite group such that the representation \(\varphi : Q \to \Aut(K)\), induced from the action by conjugacy, is not injective and the group \(p^{-1}(\ker(\varphi))\) is torsion free. Then \(G\) is a crystallographic group with holonomy group \(Q / \ker(\varphi)\).\N\NUsing this result, the authors obtain the following result relating congruence subgroups and crystallographic group: \N\NLet \(n \geq 3\) be an odd integer and let \(m \geq 3\) be a prime number. If the abelian group \(B_n[m] / [B_n[m], B_n[m]]\) is torsion free, then the group \(B_n / [B_n[m], B_n[m]]\) is crystallographic with dimension equal to rank \(( B_n / [B_n[m], B_n[m]] )\) and holonomy group \(\rho_m(B_n) / Z(\rho_m(B_n))\).\N\NAt the end, they show that there is an isomorphism between the crystallographic braid group \(B_n / [P_n, P_n]\) and a quotient of congruence subgroups (see Theorem 3.12):\N\NLet \(m\) be a positive integer and let \(n \geq 3\). Consider the map \N\[\N\bar{\xi} : B_n / [P_n, P_n] \to B_n[m] / \left( [P_n, P_n] \cap B_n[m] \right) \N\]\Ndefined by \(\bar{\xi}(\sigma_i) = \sigma_i^m\) for all \(1 \leq i \leq n-1\). If \(m\) is odd, then \(\bar{\xi}\) is an isomorphism. As a consequence, for \(n \geq 3\) and \(m\) odd, \(B_n[m] / \left( [P_n, P_n] \cap B_n[m] \right)\) is a crystallographic group of dimension \(n(n - 1)/2\) and holonomy group \(S_n\).