On the (in)finiteness of the image of Reshetikhin-Turaev representations

Abstract

We state a simple criterion to prove the infiniteness of the image of Reshetikhin-Turaev irreducible representations of the mapping class groups of surfaces. We use it to study some of the Reshetikhin-Turaev representations associated to the tori with one and two punctures and derive an alternative proof of a result of Funar.