Related papers: Braid moves in commutation classes of the symmetri…

We determine the mean number of 2-torsion elements in class groups of cubic orders, when such orders are enumerated by discriminant. Specifically, we prove that when isomorphism classes of totally real (resp., complex) cubic orders are…

We obtain a series of new results on the problem of irreducibility of commuting varieties associated with symmetric pairs or, in other words, $Z_2$-graded simple Lie algebras. In particular, we present many examples of reducible commuting…

The involution walk is the random walk on $S_n$ generated by involutions with a binomially distributed with parameter $1-p$ number of $2$-cycles. This is a parallelization of the transposition walk. The involution walk is shown in this…

Rowmotion is a simple cyclic action on the distributive lattice of order ideals of a poset: it sends the order ideal x to the order ideal generated by the minimal elements not in x. It can also be computed in "slow motion" as a sequence of…

When animal groups move coherently in the form of a flock, their trajectories are not all parallel, the individuals exchange their position in the group. In this Letter we introduce a measure of this mixing dynamics, which we quantify as…

Several sequences of free cumulants that count binary plane trees correspond to sequences of classical cumulants that count the decreasing versions of the same trees. Using two new operations on colored binary plane trees that we call…

We begin with a review of the notion of a braid group. We then discuss some known solutions to decision problems in braid groups. We then move on to proving new results in braid group algorithmics. We offer a quick solution to the…

Let $G$ be a finite group, let $p$ be a prime and let ${\rm Pr}_p(G)$ be the probability that two random $p$-elements of $G$ commute. In this paper we prove that ${\rm Pr}_p(G) > (p^2+p-1)/p^3$ if and only if $G$ has a normal and abelian…

There exists a large class of groups of operators acting on Hilbert spaces, where commutativity of group elements can be expressed in the geometric language of symplectic polar spaces embedded in the projective spaces PG($n, p$), $n$ being…

We give refined estimates for the discrete time and continuous time versions of some basic random walks on the symmetric and alternating groups $S_n$ and $A_n$. We consider the following models: random transposition, transpose top with…

Given a knot, we develop methods for finding the braid representative that minimizes the number of simple walks. Such braids lead to an efficient method for computing the colored Jones polynomial of $K$, following an approach developed by…

We consider the problem of enumerating permutations in the symmetric group on $n$ elements which avoid a given set of consecutive pattern $S$, and in particular computing asymptotics as $n$ tends to infinity. We develop a general method…

This article surveys many standard results about the braid group with emphasis on simplifying the usual algebraic proofs. We use van der Waerden's trick to illuminate the Artin-Magnus proof of the classic presentation of the algebraic…

Given an elliptic fibration $\pi : M \to S^2$ with singular locus $\Delta \subseteq S^2$, let $\operatorname{Br}(\pi) < \operatorname{Mod}(S^2,\Delta)$ be the subgroup of the spherical braid group consisting of those braids that lift to a…

We use some Lie group theory and Budney's unitarization of the Lawrence-Krammer representation, to prove that for generic parameters of definite form the image of the representation (also on certain types of subgroups) is dense in the…

For a finite group $G$, let $d(G)$ denote the probability that a randomly chosen pair of elements of $G$ commute. We prove that if $d(G)>1/s$ for some integer $s>1$ and $G$ splits over an abelian normal nontrivial subgroup $N$, then $G$ has…

We study homological representations of mapping class groups, including the braid groups. These arise from the twisted homology of certain configuration spaces, and come in many different flavours. Our goal is to give a unified general…

Fix a word $w$ in a free group $F$ on $r$ generators. A $w$-random permutation in the symmetric group $S_N$ is obtained by sampling $r$ independent uniformly random permutations $\sigma_{1},\ldots,\sigma_{r}\in S_{N}$ and evaluating…

In this paper, we study properties of random walks on finite groups and later use them to obtain the limiting braid length expectation and component number of braid closure in a model of random braids, which is constructed by lifting…

We construct a homomorphism $f$ from the braid group $B_{2n+2}$ on $2n+2$ strands to the Steinberg group associated with the Lie type $C_n$ and with integer coefficients. This homomorphism lifts the well-known symplectic representation of…