Related papers: Boundary Braids

The singular braids with $n$ strands, $n \geq 3$, were introduced independently by Baez and Birman. It is known that the monoid formed by the singular braids is embedded in a group that is known as singular braid group, denoted by $SG_n$.…

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…

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.…

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…

The family of $J$-reflection groups can be seen as a combinatorial generalisation of irreducible rank two complex reflection groups and was introduced by the author in a previous article. In this article, we define the braid groups…

Braid combing is a procedure defined by Emil Artin to solve the word problem in braid groups for the first time. It is well-known to have exponential complexity. In this paper, we use the theory of straight line programs to give a…

We show that the virtual singular braid monoid on $n$ strands embeds in a group $VSG_n$, which we call the virtual singular braid group on $n$ strands. The group $VSG_n$ contains a normal subgroup $VSPG_n$ of virtual singular pure braids.…

This paper represents a first attempt at unifying two promising models that attempt to explain the origin of the internal symmetries of leptons and quarks. It is shown that each of the four normed division algebras over the reals admits a…

For every $n\ge 2$, the {\em surface Houghton group} $\mathcal B_n$ is defined as the asymptotically rigid mapping class group of a surface with exactly $n$ ends, all of them non-planar. The groups $\mathcal B_n$ are analogous to, and in…

We consider the group of unrestricted virtual braids, describe its structure and explore its relations with fused links. Also, we define the groups of flat virtual braids and virtual Gauss braids and study some of their properties, in…

This article was submitted to a volume under preparation, with Benson Farb as the editor, on the topic of open problems in surface mapping class groups. The braid group B_n is the mapping class group of an n-times punctured disk. The…

We describe a series of complexes that relate to the braid groups as the matching complexes relate to the symmetric groups. A modified construction applies as well to other complexes based on edge sets in graphs. We show that our…

We study geometric presentations of braid groups for particles that are constrained to move on a graph, i.e. a network consisting of nodes and edges. Our proposed set of generators consists of exchanges of pairs of particles on junctions of…

We describe Artin's braid group on a (fixed) finite number of strings as a crossed module over itself. In particular, we interpret the braid relations as crossed module structure relations.

We consider the braid groups $\mathbf{B}_n(X)$ on finite simplicial complexes $X$, which are generalizations of those on both manifolds and graphs that have been studied already by many authors. We figure out the relationships between…

We take the fundamental group of the complement of the branch curve of a generic projection induced from canonical embedding of a surface. This group is stable on connected components of moduli spaces of surfaces. Since for many classes of…

We show that braid groups with at most 6 strands are CAT(0) using the close connection between these groups, the associated non-crossing partition complexes and the embeddability of their diagonal links into spherical buildings of type A.…

We prove that if g and n are integers at least two, then the abstract commensurator of the braid group with n strands on a closed orientable surface of genus g is naturally isomorphic to the extended mapping class group of a compact…

Let $g_t$ be a loop in the space of monic complex polynomials in one variable of fixed degree $n$. If the roots of $g_t$ are distinct for all $t$, they form a braid $B_1$ on $n$ strands. Likewise, if the critical points of $g_t$ are…

We study the representations of the commutator subgroup of the braid group with n strands in the symmetric group of degree r. Motivated by some experimental results, we conjecture that for n>r, every such representation is trivial.