Related papers: The mixed Hilden braid group and the plat equivale…
Let $\H_g$ be a genus $g$ handlebody and $\MCG_{2n}(\T_g)$ be the $2n$-punctured mapping class group of $\T_g=\partial\H_g$. In this paper we study two particular subgroups of $\MCG_{2n}(\T_g)$ which generalize Hilden groups. As well as…
In this paper we provide a solution to the double coset problem for the braid group $B_n$ modulo the Hilden subgroup $H_n.$ This result demonstrates that, as in the case of braid closures, the Link Problem for plat closures is "stably…
We consider oriented knots and links in a handlebody of genus $g$ through appropriate braid representatives in $S^3$, which are elements of the braid groups $B_{g,n}$. We prove a geometric version of the Markov theorem for braid equivalence…
We prove a Markov theorem for tame links in a connected closed orientable 3-manifold $M$ with respect to a plat-like representation. More precisely, given a genus $g$ Heegaard surface $\Sigma_g$ for $M$ we represent each link in $M$ as the…
Consider the unit ball, $B = D \times [0,1]$, containing $n$ unknotted arcs $a_1, a_2, ..., a_n$ such that the boundary of each $a_i$ lies in $D \times \{0\}$. The Hilden (or Wicket) group is the mapping class group of $B$ fixing the arcs…
In this paper we introduce and study the theory of pseudo links in the genus $g$ handlebody, $H_g$. Pseudo links are links with some missing crossing information that naturally generalize the notion of knot diagrams. The motivation for…
We define plat closure for spherical braids to obtain links in $\mathbb{R}P^3$ and prove that all links in $\mathbb{R}P^3$ can be realized in this manner. Given a spherical braid $\beta$ of $2n$ strands in $\mathbb{R}P^3$ we associate a…
Consider the unit ball, B = D x [0,1], containing n unknotted arcs a_1, ... a_n such that the boundary of each a_i lies in D x {0}. We give a finite presentation for the mapping class group of B fixing the arcs {a_1, ..., a_n} setwise and…
In this paper we investigate the relationship between links in bridge position and plat presentations. We will show that the Hilden double coset classes of plat presentations of a link are equivalent to bridge positions of the link up to…
We consider braids on $m+n$ strands, such that the first $m$ strands are trivially fixed. We denote the set of all such braids by $B_{m,n}$. Via concatenation $B_{m,n}$ acquires a group structure. The objective of this paper is to find a…
A special class of braids, called woven, is introduced and it is shown that every conjugation class of the braid group contains woven braids. In consequence, links can be presented as plats or closures of woven braids. Restricting on knots,…
In this paper we study the relationships between links in plat position, the dynamics of the braid group, and Heegaard splittings of double branched covers of $S^3$ over a link. These relationships offer new ways to view links in plat…
In this paper we study the kernel of the homomorphism $B_{g,n} \to B_n$ of the braid group $B_{g,n}$ in the handlebody $\mathcal{H}_g$ to the braid group $B_n$. We prove that this kernel is a semi-direct product of free groups. Also, we…
The mixed braid groups $B_{2,n}, \ n \in \mathbb{N}$, with two fixed strands and $n$ moving ones, are known to be related to the knot theory of certain families of $3$-manifolds. In this paper we define the mixed Hecke algebra…
In this article we deal with the problem of finding equivalence moves for links in Dunwoody and periodic Takahashi manifolds. We represent these manifolds using Heegaard splitting and we represent the embedded links as plat closure of…
Given a knot or link in the form of plat closure of a braid, we describe an algorithm to obtain a braid representing the same knot or link with the standard closure, and vice-versa. We analyze the three cases of knots and links: 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 propose a new non-commutative generalization of the representation variety and the character variety of a knot group. Our strategy is to reformulate the construction of the algebra of functions on the space of representations in terms of…
In this article, we propose a new approach for describing and understanding knots and links in a 3-manifold through the use of an embedded non-orientable surface. Specifically, we define a plat-like representation based on this…
To a plane algebraic curve of degree n, Moishezon associated a braid monodromy homomorphism from a finitely generated free group to Artin's braid group B_n. Using Hansen's polynomial covering space theory, we give a new interpretation of…