Related papers: Experiments on growth series of braid groups

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…

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…

We prove that generic elements of braid groups are pseudo-Anosov, in the following sense: in the Cayley graph of the braid group with n $\ge$ 3 strands, with respect to Garside's generating set, we prove that the proportion of pseudo-Anosov…

We reduce the $K(\pi,1)$-conjecture for all Artin groups with tree Coxeter diagrams to properties of Artin groups with tripod-shaped Coxeter diagrams. Combining this reduction theorem and properties of braid groups in previous works of…

In Artin-Tits groups attached to Coxeter groups of spherical type, we give a combinatorial formula to express the simple elements of the dual braid monoids in the classical Artin generators. Every simple dual braid is obtained by lifting an…

We study a specific line arrangement obtained from a generic $2$-section of the braid arrangement, and compute the fundamental group of its complement via braid monodromy. We show that the resulting presentation of the fundamental group…

We construct a new monoid structure for Artin groups associated with finite Coxeter systems. This monoid shares with the classical positive braid monoid a crucial algebraic property: it is a Garside monoid. The analogy with the classical…

It is shown that particles with braid group statistics (Plektons) in three-dimensional space-time cannot be free, in a quite elementary sense: They must exhibit elastic two-particle scattering into every solid angle, and at every energy.…

Using a recent result of Bartels and Lueck (arXiv:0901.0442) we deduce that the Farrell-Jones Fibered Isomorphism conjecture in L-theory is true for any group which contains a finite index strongly poly-free normal subgroup, in particular,…

We give a simple topological construction of the Burau representations of the loop braid groups. There are four versions: defined either on the non-extended or extended loop braid groups, and in each case there is an unreduced and a reduced…

The mixed braid groups are the subgroups of Artin braid groups whose elements preserve a given partition of the base points. We prove that the centralizer of any braid can be expressed in terms of semidirect and direct products of mixed…

We study and give examples of braided groupoids, and, a fortiori, non-degenerate solutions of the quiver-theoretical braid equation.

We study braid diagrams with a minimal number of crossings. Such braid diagrams correspond to geodesic words for the braid groups with standard Artin generators. We prove that a diagram of a homogeneous braid is minimal if and only if it is…

We study the growth of product sets in some finite three-dimensional matrix groups. In particular, we prove two results about the group of $2\times 2$ upper triangular matrices over arbitrary finite fields: a product set estimate using…

We consider the topological complexity of subgroups of Artin's braid group consisting of braids whose associated permutations lie in some specified subgroup of the symmetric group. We give upper and lower bounds for the topological…

We derive a quadratic-time algorithm for the genus distribution of any 3-regular, biconnected series-parallel graph, which we extend to any biconnected series-parallel graph of maximum degree at most 3. Since the biconnected components of…

The design and implementation of large sets of spatially-extended, gauge-invariant operators for use in determining the spectrum of baryons in lattice QCD computations are described. Group-theoretical projections onto the irreducible…

We introduce and study a family of groups $\mathbf{BB}_n$, called the blocked-braid groups, which are quotients of Artin's braid groups $\mathbf{B}_n$, and have the corresponding symmetric groups $\Sigma_n$ as quotients. They are defined by…

The goal of this mostly expository paper is to present several candidates for hyperbolic structures on irreducible Artin-Tits groups of spherical type and to elucidate some relations between them. Most constructions are algebraic analogues…

Chiral conformal blocks in a rational conformal field theory are a far going extension of Gauss hypergeometric functions. The associated monodromy representations of Artin's braid group capture the essence of the modern view on the subject,…