Related papers: Polynomial braid combing
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…
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…
The word problem of a group is a very important question. The word problem in the braid group is of particular interest for topologists, algebraists and geometers. In previouse article we have looked at the braid group from a topological…
In this paper we give new presentations of the braid groups and the pure braid groups of a closed surface. We also give an algorithm to solve the word problem in these groups, using the given presentations.
An element in Artin's braid group B_n is said to be periodic if some power of it lies in the center of B_n. In this paper we prove that all previously known algorithms for solving the conjugacy search problem in B_n are exponential in the…
We suggest a new algorithm for finding a canonical representative of a given braid, and also for the harder problem of finding a $\sigma_1$-consistent representative. We conjecture that the algorithm is quadratic-time. We present numerical…
Random braids that are formed by multiplying randomly chosen permutation braids are studied by analyzing their behavior under Garside's weighted decomposition and cycling. Using this analysis, we propose a polynomial-time algorithm to the…
This paper will appear in the Santa Cruz proceedings. An overview of the braid group techniques in the theory of algebraic surfaces, from Zariski to the latest results, is presented. An outline of the Van Kampen algorithm for computing…
We propose an algorithm for deciding whether a given braid is pseudo-Anosov, reducible, or periodic. The algorithm is based on Garside's weighted decomposition and is polynomial-time in the word-length of an input braid. Moreover, a…
In this article, we give a numerical algorithm to compute braid groups of curves, hyperplane arrangements, and parameterized system of polynomial equations. Our main result is an algorithm that determines the cross-locus and the generators…
Braid monodromy is an important tool for computing invariants of curves and surfaces. In this paper, the \emph{rectangular braid diagram (RBD)} method is proposed to compute the braid monodromy of a completely reducible $n$-gonal curve,…
Braids can be represented geometrically as curve diagrams. The geometric complexity of a braid is the minimal complexity of a curve diagram representing it. We introduce and study the corresponding notion of geometric generating function.…
We study several natural decision problems in braid groups and Artin groups. We classify the Artin groups with decidable submonoid membership problem in terms of the non-existence of certain forbidden induced subgraphs of the defining…
We prove the existence of an algorithm which solves the reducibility problem in braid groups and runs in quadratic time with respect to the braid length for any fixed braid index.
We show that branched coverings of surfaces of large enough genus arise as characteristic maps of braided surfaces that is, lift to embeddings in the product of the surface with $\mathbb R^2$. This result is nontrivial already for…
We present an algorithm that takes as input any element $B$ of the loop braid group and constructs a polynomial $f:\mathbb{R}^5\to\mathbb{R}^2$ such that the intersection of the vanishing set of $f$ and the unit 4-sphere contains the…
Computing the Jones polynomial of general link diagrams is known to be $\#$P-hard, while restricting the computation to braid closures on fixed number of strands allows for a polynomial time algorithm. We investigate polynomial time…
The cycling operation is a special kind of conjugation that can be applied to elements in Artin's braid groups, in order to reduce their length. It is a key ingredient of the usual solutions to the conjugacy problem in braid groups. In…
In the 1920's Artin defined the braid group in an attempt to understand knots in a more algebraic setting. A braid is a certain arrangement of strings in three-dimensional space. It is a celebrated theorem of Alexander that every knot is…
Since the braid group was discovered by E. Artin, the question of its conjugacy problem has been solved by Garside and Birman, Ko and Lee. However, the solutions given thus far are difficult to compute with a computer, since the number of…