Related papers: On a surface singular braid monoid

We prove a conjecture of the first and third named authors relating the Kauffman bracket skein algebra of a genus zero surface with boundary to a quantized $K$-theoretic Coulomb branch. As a consequence, we see that our skein algebra arises…

Let $\mathbf{S}$ be a marked surface with vortices (=punctures with extra $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry). We study the decorated version $\mathbf{S}_\bigtriangleup$, where the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry lifts to the relation that the fourth power of…

Knotted and tangled structures frequently appear in physical fields, but so do mechanisms for untying them. To understand how this untying works, we simulate the behavior of 1,458 superfluid vortex knots of varying complexity and scale in…

We give two constructions of surfaces in simply-connected 4-manifolds with non simply-connected complements. One is an iteration of the twisted rim surgery introduced by the first author. We also construct, for any group G satisfying some…

We study unknottedness for free boundary minimal surfaces in a three-dimensional Riemannian manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature and strictly convex boundary, and for self-shrinkers in the three-dimensional Euclidean space. For doing…

Garside-theoretical solutions to the conjugacy problem in braid groups depend on the determination of a characteristic subset of the conjugacy class of any given braid, e.g. the sliding circuit set. It is conjectured that, among rigid…

This paper is the first part in a 2 part study of an elementary functorial construction from the category of finite non-abelian groups to a category of singular compact, oriented 2-manifolds. After a desingularization process this…

We investigate the local contribution of the braid monodromy factorization in the context of the links obtained by the closure of these braids. We consider plane curves which are arrangements of lines and conics as well as some algebraic…

We show that Vassiliev invariants separate braids on a closed oriented surface, and we exhibit an universal Vassiliev invariant for these braids in terms of chord diagrams labeled by elements of the fundamental group of the considered…

These notes were prepared to supplement the talk that I gave on Feb 19, 2004, at the First East Asian School of Knots and Related Topics, Seoul, South Korea. In this article I review aspects of the interconnections between braids, knots and…

We introduce stable equivalence classes of oriented links in orientable three-manifolds that are orientation $I$-bundles over closed but not necessarily orientable surfaces. We call these twisted links, and show that they subsume the…

We develop a purely combinatorial framework for the systematic enumeration of knot and link diagrams supported on the thickened torus $T^2\times I$. Using the theory of maps on surfaces, cellular $4$--regular torus projections are encoded…

Let $u(K)$ and $g(K)$ denote the unknotting number and the genus of a knot $K$, respectively. For a 3-braid knot $K$, we show that $u(K)\le g(K)$ holds, and that if $u(K)=g(K)$ then $K$ is either a 2-braid knot, a connected sum of two…

We begin with a brief sketch of what is known and conjectured concerning braided monoidal 2-categories and their applications to 4d topological quantum field theories and 2-tangles (surfaces embedded in 4-dimensional space). Then we give…

We use rudiments of the Seiberg-Witten gluing theory for trivial circle bundles over a Riemann surface to relate de Seiberg-Witten basic classes of two $4$-manifolds containing Riemann surfaces of the same genus and self-intersection zero…

Branch points of a real 2-surface S in a 4-manifold M generalize the branch points of complex curves in complex surfaces: for example, they can occur as singularities of minimal surfaces. We investigate such a branch point p when S is…

We classify all finite group actions on knots in the 3-sphere. By geometrization, all such actions are conjugate to actions by isometries, and so we may use orthogonal representation theory to describe three cyclic and seven dihedral…

We investigate the question of when distinct branched surfaces in the complement of a 2-bridge knot support essential surfaces with identical boundary slopes. We determine all instances in which this occurs and identify an infinite family…

Little is known on the classification of Heegaard splittings for hyperbolic 3-manifolds. Although Kobayashi gave a complete classification of Heegaard splittings for the exteriors of 2-bridge knots, our knowledge of other classes is…

Twisted knot theory, introduced by M.O. Bourgoin, is a generalization of virtual knot theory. It naturally yields the notion of a twisted braid, which is closely related to the notion of a virtual braid due to Kauffman. In this paper, we…