Flat connections on configuration spaces and formality of braid groups of surfaces

Abstract: We construct an explicit bundle with flat connection on the configuration space of n points of a complex curve. This enables one to recover the `formality' isomorphism between the Lie algebra of the prounipotent completion of the pure braid group of n points on a surface and an explicitly presented Lie algebra t_{g,n} (Bezrukavnikov), and to extend it to a morphism from the full braid group of the surface to the semidirect product exp(hat t_{g,n}) rtimes S_n.