The Burau representation of the braid group is faithful for n = 4

Vasudha Bharathram; Joan S. Birman; Tara E. Brendle

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arXiv · 2607.05283

The Burau representation of the braid group is faithful for n = 4

Vasudha Bharathram·Joan S. Birman·Tara E. Brendle

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Abstract

In this paper we use ideas introduced earlier by Moody, Long, Long-Paton, and Bigelow to prove the theorem of the title, that the Burau representation of the classical braid group is faithful for n = 4. An immediate corollary is that the Jones representation of the braid group is also faithful for n = 4.

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Vasudha Bharathram, Joan S. Birman, Tara E. Brendle. 2026-07-06. The Burau representation of the braid group is faithful for n = 4. https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.05283

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