English

Densely ordered braid subgroups

Group Theory 2007-05-23 v1 Algebraic Topology

Abstract

Dehornoy showed that the Artin braid groups BnB_n are left-orderable. This ordering is discrete, but we show that, for n>2n >2 the Dehornoy ordering, when restricted to certain natural subgroups, becomes a dense ordering. Among subgroups which arise are the commutator subgroup and the kernel of the Burau representation (for those nn for which the kernel is nontrivial). These results follow from a characterization of least positive elements of any normal subgroup of BnB_n which is discretely ordered by the Dehornoy ordering.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0705.2623,
  title  = {Densely ordered braid subgroups},
  author = {Adam Clay and Dale Rolfsen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0705.2623},
  year   = {2007}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T08:29:29.834Z