Related papers: Boundary Braids
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 consider finite-sheeted, regular, possibly branched covering spaces of compact surfaces with boundary and the associated liftable and symmetric mapping class groups. In particular, we classify when either of these subgroups coincides…
We give a complete classification of homomorphisms from the braid group on $n$ strands to the braid group on $2n$ strands when $n$ is at least 5. We also classify endomorphisms of the braid group on 4 strands, as well as homomorphisms from…
This paper upbuilds the theoretical framework of orbit braids in $M\times I$ by making use of the orbit configuration space $F_G(M,n)$, which enriches the theory of ordinary braids, where $M$ is a connected topological manifold of dimension…
Cobordism groups and cut-and-paste groups of manifolds arise from imposing two different relations on the monoid of manifolds under disjoint union. By imposing both relations simultaneously, a cobordism cut and paste group…
We show that the group cohomology of the diffeomorphisms of the disk with $n$ punctures has the cohomology of the braid group of $n$ strands as the summand. As an application of this method, we also prove that there is no cohomological…
Let $UVB_n$ and $UVP_n$ be the unrestricted virtual braid group and the unrestricted virtual pure braid group on n strands respectively. We study the groups $UVB_n$ and $UVP_n$, and our main results are as follows: for $n\geq 5$, we give a…
We consider the universal family $E_n^d$ of superelliptic curves: each curve $\Sigma_n^d$ in the family is a $d$-fold covering of the unit disk, totally ramified over a set $P$ of $n$ distinct points; $\Sigma_n^d\hookrightarrow E_n^d\to…
Let $M$ be the disk or a compact, connected surface without boundary different from the sphere $S^2$ and the real projective plane $\mathbb{R}P^2$, and let $N$ be a compact, connected surface (possibly with boundary). It is known that the…
A left orderable completely metrizable topological group is exhibited containing Artin's braid group on infinitely many strands. The group is the mapping class group (rel boundary) of the closed unit disk with a sequence of interior…
The topological model for quantum computation is an inherently fault-tolerant model built on anyons in topological phases of matter. A key role is played by the braid group, and in this survey we focus on a selection of ways that the…
We give a method for constructing an interactive art piece which illustrates two different definitions of the braid groups, along with their faithful action on the free group. The box also demonstrates how all motions of points in the plane…
The $d$-fold ($d \geq 3$) branched coverings on a disk give an infinite family of nongeometric embeddings of braid groups into mapping class groups. We, in this paper, give new explicit expressions of these braid group representations into…
The group of planar (or flat) pure braids on $n$ strands, also known as the pure twin group, is the fundamental group of the configuration space $F_{n,3}(\mathbb{R})$ of $n$ labelled points in $\mathbb{R}$ no three of which coincide. The…
We consider the space of embeddings of finitely many circles that bound disks in non-positively curved surfaces. We index the connected components of this space with finite rooted trees and show that the connected components are classifying…
Virtual braids are a combinatorial generalization of braids. We present abstract braids as equivalence classes of braid diagrams on a surface, joining two distinguished boundary components. They are identified up to isotopy, compatibility,…
A subperiodic group is a group of motions of $d$-dimensional Euclidean space $\R^d$ which contains a translation lattice $\Z^r$ of rank $r < d$ as a subgroup of finite index. A classification into abstract group isomorphism classes is…
In the curve complex for a surface, a handlebody set is the set of loops that bound properly embedded disks in a given handlebody bounded by the surface. A boundary set is the set of non-separating loops in the curve complex that bound…
We show that every trivial 3-strand braid diagram contains a disk, defined as a ribbon ending in opposed crossings. Under a convenient algebraic form, the result extends to every Artin--Tits group of dihedral type, but it fails to extend to…
We derive a lower bound on the size of finite non-cyclic quotients of the braid group that is superexponential in the number of strands. We also derive a similar lower bound for nontrivial finite quotients of the commutator subgroup of the…