On the Alexander invariants of trigonal curves

Abstract

We show that most of the genus-zero subgroups of the braid group B 3 (which are roughly the braid monodromy groups of the trigonal curves on the Hirzebruch surfaces) are irrelevant as far as the Alexander invariant is concerned: there is a very restricted class of "primitive" genus-zero subgroups such that these subgroups and their genus-zero intersections determine all the Alexander invariants. Then, we classify the primitive subgroups in a special subclass. This result implies the known classification of the dihedral covers of irreducible trigonal curves.