Asymptotic faithfulness of the quantum SU(n) representations of the mapping class groups

Abstract

We prove that the sequence of projective quantum SU(n) representations of the mapping class group of a closed oriented surface, obtained from the projective flat SU(n)-Verlinde bundles over Teichmüller space, is asymptotically faithful. That is, the intersection over all levels of the kernels of these representations is trivial, whenever the genus is at least 3. For the genus 2 case, this intersection is exactly the order 2 subgroup, generated by the hyper-elliptic involution, in the case of even degree and n = 2. Otherwise the intersection is also trivial in the genus 2 case.