Extra-special quotients of surface braid groups and double Kodaira fibrations with small signature

Abstract

We study some special systems of generators on finite groups, introduced in previous work by the first author and called diagonal double Kodaira structures, in order to investigate finite non-abelian quotients of the pure braid group on two strands {mathsf {P}}_2(Sigma _b), where Sigma _b is a closed Riemann surface of genus b. In particular, we prove that, if a finite group G admits a diagonal double Kodaira structure, then |G|ge 32, and equality holds if and only if G is extra-special. In the last section, as a geometrical application of our algebraic results, we construct two 3-dimensional families of double Kodaira fibrations having signature 16. Such surfaces are different from the ones recently constructed by Lee, Lönne and Rollenske and, as far as we know, they provide the first examples of positive-dimensional families of double Kodaira fibrations with small signature.