Related papers: Small Quotients of Braid Groups

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…

We show that for $n \ge 6$ every even permutation on $n$ symbols is the commutator of two $n$-cycles. More precisely, let $S_n$ be the symmetric group and $A_n$ the alternating group. Let $C(n) \subset S_n$ denote the conjugacy class of…

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…

Following previous work on congruence subgroups and crystallographic braid groups, we study the lower central series of congruence braid groups related to the braid group $B_3$, showing in particular that corresponding quotients are almost…

Subgroups of the symmetric group $S_n$ act on powers of chains $C^n$ by permuting coordinates, and induce automorphisms of the ordered sets $C^n$. The quotients defined are candidates for symmetric chain decompositions. We establish this…

We determine the lower central and derived series of the n-string braid groups B_n(RP^2) of the real projective plane. We are motivated in part by the study of Fadell-Neuwirth short exact sequences, but the problem is interesting in its own…

Let n\geq 3. We classify the finite groups which are realised as subgroups of the sphere braid group B_n(S^2). Such groups must be of cohomological period 2 or 4. Depending on the value of n, we show that the following are the maximal…

The normal covering number $\gamma(G)$ of a finite, non-cyclic group $G$ is the minimum number of proper subgroups such that each element of $G$ lies in some conjugate of one of these subgroups. We find lower bounds linear in $n$ for…

We define the symmetric braid index $b_s(K)$ of a ribbon knot $K$ to be the smallest index of a braid whose closure yields a symmetric union diagram of $K$, and derive a Khovanov-homological characterisation of knots with $b_s(K)$ at most…

An asymmetric covering D(n,R) is a collection of special subsets S of an n-set such that every subset T of the n-set is contained in at least one special S with |S| - |T| <= R. In this paper we compute the smallest size of any D(n,1) for n…

This note gives an elementary proof that the symmetric groups possess only one exceptional symmetry. I am referring to the fact that the outer automorphism group of the symmetric group $S_n$ is trivial unless $n=6$ and the outer…

Below we construct non-cyclic and torsion-free abelian quotients for subgroups of braid groups generated by cube powers of half-twists. In the case of 3 and 4 strands we compute the abelianization of these groups. Also, we get…

We describe a new technique to obtain representations of the braid group B_n from the R-matrix of a quantum deformed algebra of the one dimensional harmonic oscillator. We consider the action of the R-matrix not on the tensor product of…

We construct a braided analogue of the quantum permutation group and show that it is the universal braided compact quantum group acting on a finite space in the category of $\mathbb{Z}/N\mathbb{Z}$-$\textrm{C}^*$-algebras with a twisted…

Let $M$ be a closed surface, $q\geq 2$ and $n\geq 2$. In this paper, we analyze the Coxeter-type quotient group $B_n(M)(q)$ of the surface braid group $B_{n}(M)$ by the normal closure of the element $\sigma_1^q$, where $\sigma_1$ is the…

R. Canfield has conjectured that for all subgroups G of the automorphism group of the Boolean lattice B(n) (which can be regarded as the symmetric group S(n)) the quotient order B(n)/G is a symmetric chain order. We provide a…

Dehornoy showed that the Artin braid groups $B_n$ are left-orderable. This ordering is discrete, but we show that, for $n >2$ the Dehornoy ordering, when restricted to certain natural subgroups, becomes a dense ordering. Among subgroups…

We prove that a quotient G/N of a subgroup G of Sym(n) by a nonabelian minimal normal subgroup N of G embeds into Sym(m) for some $m<n$. This result was proved previously by Robert Chamberlain, and we also prove that,if G is transitive,…

We introduce linear representations of the universal virtual braid group $UV_n(c)$, where $n\geq 2$ and $c\geq 1$, which is a unifying framework for braid-type groups with multiple types of crossings. We classify and study its complex…

The reduced Burau representation $V_n$ of the braid group $B_n$ is obtained from the action of $B_n$ on the homology of an infinite cyclic cover of the $n$-punctured disc. In this note, we calculate $H_*(B_n;V_n)$ as a module over the…