Related papers: On braids and groups $G_n^k$

This paper is a survey of some properties of the braid groups and related groups that lead to questions on mapping class groups.

Given a knot K we may construct a group G_n(K) from the fundamental group of K by adjoining an nth root of the meridian that commutes with the corresponding longitude. These "generalised knot groups" were introduced independently by Wada…

We construct families of birational involutions on $\mathbb{P}^3$ or a smooth cubic threefold which do not fit into a non-trivial elementary relation of Sarkisov links. As a consequence, we construct new homomorphisms from their group of…

Genevois recently classified which graph braid groups on $\ge 3$ strands are word hyperbolic. In the $3$-strand case, he asked whether all such word hyperbolic groups are actually free; this reduced to checking two infinite classes of…

For any $n$, we describe all endomorphisms of the braid group $B_n$ and of its commutator subgroup $B'_n$, as well as all homomorphisms $B'_n\to B_n$. These results are new only for small $n$ because endomorphisms of $B_n$ are already…

In the present paper the representation of the virtual braid group $VB_n$ into the automorphism group of free product of the free group and free abelian group is constructed. This representation generalizes the previously constructed ones.…

We construct some braided quantum groups over the circle group. These are analogous to the free orthogonal quantum groups and generalise the braided quantum SU(2) groups for complex deformation parameter. We describe their irreducible…

Let $G$ be a nonabelian, simple group with a nontrivial conjugacy class $C \subseteq G$. Let $K$ be a diagram of an oriented knot in $S^3$, thought of as computational input. We show that for each such $G$ and $C$, the problem of counting…

We provide a positive answer to an old problem of Jonathan K. Simon: if $K$ and $K'$ are two knots such that there is an epimorphism from the knot group of $K$ to the knot group of $K'$, then the genus of $K$ is greater than or equal to the…

Given a knot $K$ we may construct a group $G_n(K)$ from the fundamental group of $K$ by adjoining an $n$th root of the meridian that commutes with the corresponding longitude. For $n\geq2$ these "generalised knot groups" determine $K$ up to…

One of the most interesting questions about a group is if its word problem can be solved and how. The word problem in the braid group is of particular interest to topologists, algebraists and geometers, and is the target of intensive…

Building on work of Brandt and Terao in their study of $k$-formality, we introduce a co-chain complex associated to a multi-arrangement and prove that its cohomologies determine freeness of the associated module of multi-derivations. This…

Path algebras are a convenient way of describing decompositions of tensor powers of an object in a tensor category. If the category is braided, one obtains representations of the braid groups $B_n$ for all $n\in \N$. We say that such…

Complex braid groups are the natural generalizations of braid groups associated to arbitrary (finite) complex reflection groups. We investigate several methods for computing the homology of these groups. In particular, we get the Poincar\'e…

We define a quasihomomorphism from braid groups to the concordance group of knots and examine its properties and consequences of its existence. In particular, we provide a relation between the stable four ball genus in the concordance group…

A powerful way to study groups is via their actions on suitable spaces. Classifying spaces for families of subgroups are a type of these spaces, obtained by imposing some strict conditions on the fixed-point sets. We show how in the…

We prove that ascending HNN extensions of free groups are word-hyperbolic if and only if they have no Baumslag-Solitar subgroups. This extends the theorem of Brinkmann that free-by-cyclic groups are word-hyperbolic if and only if they have…

We present an elementary introduction to one of the most important today knot theory approaches, which gives rise to a representation for a class of knot polynomials in terms of quantum groups. Historically, the approach was at the same…

We characterize, in an algebraic and in a diagrammatic way, Milnor string link invariants indexed by sequences where any index appears at most $k$ times, for any fixed $k\ge 1$. The algebraic characterization is given in terms of an…

The knot concordance group can be contextualized as organizing problems about 3- and 4-dimensional spaces and the relationships between them. Every 3-manifold is surgery on some link, not necessarily a knot, and thus it is natural to ask…