Related papers: Simple Braids Tend toward Positive Entropy

The topological entropy of a braid is the infimum of the entropies of all homeomorphisms of the disc which have a finite invariant set represented by the braid. When the isotopy class represented by the braid is pseudo-Anosov or is…

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 prove that, in the $l$-ball of the Cayley graph of the braid group with $n \geqslant 3$ strands, the proportion of rigid pseudo-Anosov braids is bounded below independently of $l$ by a positive value.

We consider a hyperbolic surface bundle over the circle with the smallest known volume among hyperbolic manifolds having 3 cusps, so called "the magic manifold". We compute the entropy function on the fiber face of the unit ball with…

Positive permutation braids on n strings, which are defined to be positive n-braids where each pair of strings crosses at most once, form the elementary but non-trivial building blocks in many studies of conjugacy in the braid groups. We…

The main result of this paper is a negative answer to the question: are all transversal knot types transversally simple? An explicit infinite family of examples is given of closed 3-braids that define transversal knot types that are not…

Let n be a positive integer. We provide a Khovanov homology proof of the following classical fact: If the closure of an n-strand braid is the n-component unlink, then the braid is trivial.

Let S be a compact, oriented surface with negative Euler characteristic and let f be a homeomorphism of S that is isotopic to the identity. If there exists a periodic orbit with a non-zero rotation vector, then there exists a simple braid…

We give a simple characterization of braids that can be unplaited keeping separately their upper ends and their lower ends tied together

The crossing matrix of a braid on $N$ strands is the $N\times N$ integer matrix with zero diagonal whose $i,j$ entry is the algebraic number (positive minus negative) of crossings by strand $i$ over strand $j$ . When restricted to the…

We consider in this paper the problem of computing the entropy of a braid. We recall its definition and construct, for each braid, a sequence of real numbers, whose limit is its entropy. We state one conjecture about the convergence speed,…

A well-known algorithm for unknotting knots involves traversing a knot diagram and changing each crossing that is first encountered from below. The minimal number of crossings changed in this way across all diagrams for a knot is called the…

We study a subset of square free positive braids and we give a few algebraic characterizations of them and one geometric characterization: the set of positive braids whose closures are unlinks. We describe canonical forms of these braids…

A fast method is presented for computing the topological entropy of braids on the torus. This work is motivated by the need to analyze large braids when studying two-dimensional flows via the braiding of a large number of particle…

It is proved by Sakuma and Brooks that any closed orientable $3$-manifold with a Heegaard splitting of genus $g$ admits a $2$-fold branched cover that is a hyperbolic $3$-manifold and a genus $g$ surface bundle over the circle. This paper…

We study the minimal dilatation of pseudo-Anosov pure surface braids and provide upper and lower bounds as a function of genus and the number of punctures. For a fixed number of punctures, these bounds tend to infinity as the genus does. We…

This paper concerns a family of pseudo-Anosov braids with dilatations arbitrarily close to one. The associated graph maps and train tracks have stable "star-like" shapes, and the characteristic polynomials of their transition matrices form…

The deep connections between braids and dynamics by way of the Nielsen-Thurston classification theorem have led to a wide range of practical applications. Braids have been used to detect coherent structures and mixing regions in oceanic…

We provide linear lower bounds for the signature of positive braids in terms of the three genus of their braid closure. This yields linear bounds for the topological slice genus of knots that arise as closures of positive braids.

We show that reducible braids which are, in a Garside-theoretical sense, as simple as possible within their conjugacy class, are also as simple as possible in a geometric sense. More precisely, if a braid belongs to a certain subset of its…