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E. Artin described all irreducible representations of the braid group B_k to the symmetric group S(k). We strengthen some of his results and, moreover, exhibit a complete picture of homomorphisms of B_k to S(n) for n<2k+1. We show that the…
The n-string braid group of a graph X is defined as the fundamental group of the n-point configuration space of the space X. This configuration space is a finite dimensional aspherical space. A. Abrams and R. Ghrist have conjectured that…
Representations of braid group $B_n$ on $n \geq 2$ strands by automorphisms of a free group of rank $n$ go back to Artin (1925). In 1991 Kauffman introduced a theory of virtual braids and virtual knots and links. The virtual braid group…
We study several natural decision problems in braid groups and Artin groups. We classify the Artin groups with decidable submonoid membership problem in terms of the non-existence of certain forbidden induced subgraphs of the defining…
It is known that any tame hyperbolic 3-manifold with infinite volume and a single end is the geometric limit of a sequence of finite volume hyperbolic knot complements. Purcell and Souto showed that if the original manifold embeds in the…
For a tree $G$, we study the changing behaviors in the homology groups $H_i(B_nG)$ as $n$ varies, where $B_nG := \pi_1($UConf$_n(G))$. We prove that the ranks of these homologies can be described by a single polynomial for all $n$, and…
We show that the crystallographic braid group $B_n/[P_n,P_n]$ embeds naturally in the group of unrestricted virtual braids $UVB_n$, we give new proofs of known results about the torsion elements of $B_n/[P_n,P_n]$, and we characterise the…
These are lecture notes prepared for a minicourse given at the Cimpa Research School "Algebraic and geometric aspects of representation theory", held in Curitiba, Brazil in March 2013. The purpose of the course is to provide an introduction…
We consider finite-sheeted, regular, possibly branched covering spaces of compact surfaces with boundary and the associated liftable and symmetric mapping class groups. In particular, we classify when either of these subgroups coincides…
In this paper we study embeddings of contact manifolds using braidings of one manifold about another. In particular we show how to embed many contact 3-manifolds into the standard contact 5-sphere. We also show how to obstruct braidings of…
Classical knot theory deals with {\em diagrams} and {\em invariants}. By means of horizontal {\em trisecants}, we construct a new theory of classical braids with invariants valued in {\em pictures}. These pictures are closely related to…
We classify closed 3-braids which are L-space knots.
Combining the results by Birman and Goldberg, it was proved the normal closure of the pure braid group of the disk $P_n(D)$ in the pure braid group of the torus $P_n(T)$ is the commutator subgroup $[P_n(T),P_n(T)]$. In this paper we are…
A classical result of H. S. M. Coxeter asserts that a certain quotient $B(m,n)$ of the braid group $B(m)$ on $m$ strands is finite if and only if $(m,n)$ corresponds to the type of one of the five Platonic solids. If ${\bf k}$ is a knot or…
We show that the simple elements of the dual Garside structure of an Artin group of type $D_n$ are Mikado braids, giving a positive answer to a conjecture of Digne and the second author. To this end, we use an embedding of the Artin group…
The relationships between braid ordering and the geometry of its closure is studied. We prove that if an essential closed surface $F$ in the complements of closed braid has relatively small genus with respect to the Dehornoy floor of the…
We characterize unitary representations of braid groups $B_n$ of degree linear in $n$ and finite images of such representations of degree exponential in $n$.
In this mostly survey paper, we investigate the resonance varieties, the lower central series ranks, and the Chen ranks, as well as the residual and formality properties of several families of braid-like groups: the pure braid groups $P_n$,…
Presentations are computed for a braided version BV of Thompson's group V and for V itself showing that there is an Artin group/Coxeter group relation between them. The presentation for V is obtained from that for BV by declaring all that…
We study the finiteness properties of the braided Higman--Thompson group $bV_{d,r}(H)$ with labels in $H\leq B_d$, and $bF_{d,r}(H)$ and $bT_{d,r}(H)$ with labels in $H\leq PB_d$ where $B_d$ is the braid group with $d$ strings and $PB_d$ is…