English

The Fundamental Group of $SO(n)$ Via Quotients of Braid Groups

History and Overview 2016-07-21 v1 Group Theory Geometric Topology

Abstract

We describe an algebraic proof of the well-known topological fact that π1(SO(n))Z/2Z\pi_1(SO(n)) \cong Z/2Z. The fundamental group of SO(n)SO(n) appears in our approach as the center of a certain finite group defined by generators and relations. The latter is a factor group of the braid group BnB_n, obtained by imposing one additional relation and turns out to be a nontrivial central extension by Z/2ZZ/2Z of the corresponding group of rotational symmetries of the hyperoctahedron in dimension nn.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1607.05876,
  title  = {The Fundamental Group of $SO(n)$ Via Quotients of Braid Groups},
  author = {Ina Hajdini and Orlin Stoytchev},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1607.05876},
  year   = {2016}
}