Families of superelliptic curves, complex braid groups and generalized Dehn twists

From MaRDI portal
Publication:2200063



Abstract: We consider the universal family End of superelliptic curves: each curve Sigmand in the family is a d-fold covering of the unit disk, totally ramified over a set P of n distinct points; SigmandhookrightarrowEndoCn is a fibre bundle, where Cn is the configuration space of n distinct points. We find that End is the classifying space for the complex braid group of type B(d,d,n) and we compute a big part of the integral homology of End, including a complete calculation of the stable groups over finite fields by means of Poincar`e series. The computation of the main part of the above homology reduces to the computation of the homology of the classical braid group with coefficients in the first homology group of Sigmand, endowed with the monodromy action. While giving a geometric description of such monodromy of the above bundle, we introduce generalized 1overd-twists, associated to each standard generator of the braid group, which reduce to standard Dehn twists for d=2.


The present paper deals with the homology of the families of superelliptic curves \[ \text{E}_n^d = \{(\text{P},z,y) \in \text{C}_n \times \text{D} \times \mathbb{C},\ y^d = (z-x_1) \dots (z-x_n)\}, \] where D is the open unit disk in \(\mathbb{C}\), \(\text{C}_n\) is the configuration space of \(n\) distinct unordered points in D, and \(\text{P} = \{x_1, \dots, x_n\} \in \text{C}_n\). Given P, the curve \[ \Sigma_n^d = \{(z,y) \in \text{D} \times \mathbb{C},\ y^d = (z-x_1) \dots (z-x_n)\} \] is a \(d\)-fold covering of D, totally ramified over P, and there is a fibration \(\pi : \text{E}_n^d \rightarrow \text{C}_n\) which maps \(\Sigma_n^d\) onto its set of ramification points. The case \(d=2\) of hyperelliptic curves was studied by the authors in [Isr. J. Math. 230, No. 2, 653--692 (2019; Zbl 1419.14039)]. Now, they consider a generic \(d\), and this paper is a natural sequel of the former. The main results are anticipated in Section 1, as Theorems 1.1--1.4. The first of them states that the space \( \text{E}_n^d\) is a classifying space for the complex braid group of type \(\text{B}(d,d,n)\). Then, the homology of the complex braid group of type \(\text{B}(d,d,n)\) over finite fields when \(d\) or \(n\) is odd is computed, and their stable homology groups are described. Explicit examples for \(3 \leq d \leq 6\) are given in the final section of the paper. Of course, when specializing the results to \(d=2\), the results of the earlier paper are recovered.



Cites work









This page was built for publication: Families of superelliptic curves, complex braid groups and generalized Dehn twists

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q2200063)