The Lawrence-Krammer representation is a quantization of the symmetric square of the Burau representation

In [1] we have constructed a [n+1/2]+1 parameters family of irreducible representations of the Braid group B_3 in arbitrary dimension using a $q-$deformation of the Pascal triangle. This construction extends in particular results by S.P. Humphries (2000), who constructed representations of the braid group B_3 in arbitrary dimension using the classical Pascal triangle. E. Ferrand (2000) obtained an equivalent representation of B_3 by considering two special operators in the sp...

The Burau representation enables to define many other representations of the braid group $B_n$ by the topological operation of ``cabling braids''. We show here that these representations split into copies of the Burau representation itself and of a representation of $B_n/(P_n,P_n)$. In particular, we show that there is no gain in terms of faithfulness by cabling the Burau representation.

We study the Burau representation of the braid group $B_n$ in the case where $n=3$. We give three novel topological proofs that the Burau representation of $B_3$ is faithful, and a proof that it's faithful modulo $p$ for all integers $p>1$. We then classify conjugacy classes in the image of the Burau representation in $\text{GL}(2, \mathbb{Z}[t, t^{-1}])$ in a way that takes account of the fact that braids are geometrically oriented, and use that fact to give a new, linear ti...

We study the kernel of the evaluated Burau representation through the braid element $\sigma_i \sigma_{i+1} \sigma_i$. The element is significant as a part of the standard braid relation. We establish the form of this element's image raised to the $n^{th}$ power. Interestingly, the cyclotomic polynomials arise and can be used to define the expression. The main result of this paper is that the Burau representation of the braid group of $n$ strands for $n \geq 3$ is unfaithful a...

We give a method to produce representations of the braid group $B_n$ of $n-1$ generators ($n\leq \infty$). Moreover, we give sufficient conditions over a non unitary representation for being of this type. This method produces examples of irreducible representations of finite and infinite dimension.

We establish relations between both the classical and the dual Garside structures of the braid group and the Burau representation. Using the classical structure, we formulate a non-vanishing criterion for the Burau representation of the 4-strand braid group. In the dual context, it is shown that the Burau representation for arbitrary braid index is injective when restricted to the set of \emph{simply-nested braids}.

We build representations of the affine and double affine braid groups and Hecke algebras of type $C^\vee C_n$, based upon the theory of quantum symmetric pairs $(U,B)$. In the case $U=U_q(gl_N)$, our constructions provide a quantization of the representations constructed by Etingof, Freund and Ma in arXiv:0801.1530, and also a type $BC$ generalization of the results in arXiv:0805.2766.

We give a simple topological construction of the Burau representations of the loop braid groups. There are four versions: defined either on the non-extended or extended loop braid groups, and in each case there is an unreduced and a reduced version. Three are not surprising, and one could easily guess the correct matrices to assign to generators. The fourth is more subtle, and does not seem combinatorially obvious, although it is topologically very natural.

We consider subgroups of the braid groups which are generated by $k$-th powers of the standard generators and prove that any infinite intersection (with even $k$) is trivial. This is motivated by some conjectures of Squier concerning the kernels of Burau's representations of the braid groups at roots of unity. Furthermore, we show that the image of the braid group on 3 strands by these representations is either a finite group, for a few roots of unity, or a finite extension o...

We adapt some of the methods of quantum Teichm\"uller theory to construct a family of representations of the pure braid group of the sphere.