Related papers: Braids in trivial braid diagrams

Charts are oriented labeled graphs in a disk. Any simple surface braid (2-dimensional braid) can be described by using a chart. Also, a chart represents an oriented closed surface embedded in 4-space. In this paper, we investigate embedded…

We resolve parts (A) and (B) of Problem 1.100 from Kirby's list by showing that many nontrivial links arise as cross-sections of unknotted holomorphic disks in the four-ball. The techniques can be used to produce unknotted ribbon surfaces…

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…

We prove a conjecture due to Makanin: if a and b are elements of the Artin braid group B_n such that a^k=b^k for some nonzero integer k, then a and b are conjugate. The proof involves the Nielsen-Thurston classification of braids.

We investigate properties of spatial graphs on the standard torus. It is known that nontrivial embeddings of planar graphs in the torus contain a nontrivial knot or a nonsplit link due to [1],[2]. Building on this and using the chirality of…

We prove the existence of pure braids with arbitrarily many strands which are small, i.e. they contain no closed incompressible surface in the complement which is not boundary parallel. This implies the existence of irreducible non-Haken…

We give a necessary and sufficient condition for a graph to have a right-angled Artin group as its braid group for braid index $\ge 5$. In order to have the necessity part, graphs are organized into small classes so that one of homological…

The $d$-fold ($d \geq 3$) branched coverings on a disk give an infinite family of nongeometric embeddings of braid groups into mapping class groups. We, in this paper, give new explicit expressions of these braid group representations into…

In this work we present a natural surjective map from rigid braids in B_3 (in Garside sense) to SL_2(N). This map provides an upper and a lower bound for the dilatation factor of a pseudo-Anosov 3-strand braid. These bounds only depend on…

We prove that if an alternating 3-braid knot has unknotting number one, then there must exist an unknotting crossing in any alternating diagram of it, and we enumerate such knots. The argument combines the obstruction to unknotting number…

Virtual braids are a combinatorial generalization of braids. We present abstract braids as equivalence classes of braid diagrams on a surface, joining two distinguished boundary components. They are identified up to isotopy, compatibility,…

Given a knot diagram $D$, we construct a semi-threading circle for it which can be an axis of $D$ as a closed braid depending on knot diagrams. In particular, we consider semi-threading circles for minimal diagrams of a knot with respect to…

Sometime ago, we showed that a pure Artin braid group is not K\"ahler, i.e. it is not the fundamental group of a compact K\"ahler manifold. This used a result of Bressler, Ramachandran and the author that K\"ahler groups cannot be too…

We give a method for constructing an interactive art piece which illustrates two different definitions of the braid groups, along with their faithful action on the free group. The box also demonstrates how all motions of points in the plane…

We present a simple construction which associates to every Garside group a metric space, called the additional length complex, on which the group acts. These spaces share important features with curve complexes: they are…

Barnette's Conjecture claims that all cubic, 3-connected, planar, bipartite graphs are Hamiltonian. We give a translation of this conjecture into the matching-theoretic setting. This allows us to relax the requirement of planarity to give…

We describe an algorithm to find ribbon disks for alternating knots, and the results of a computer implementation of this algorithm. The algorithm is underlain by a slice link obstruction coming from Donaldson's diagonalisation theorem. It…

We prove that any one-ended, locally finite Cayley graph with non-torsion generators admits a decomposition into edge-disjoint Hamiltonian (i.e. spanning) double-rays. In particular, the $n$-dimensional grid $\mathbb{Z}^n$ admits a…

The graph braid group of a complete bipartite graph is the fundamental group of a configuration space of points on the graph, which is a CAT(0) cube complex. We combine an analysis of the topology of links of vertices in this complex, the…

We give an algorithm which decides the Nielsen-Thurston type of a given four-strand braid. The complexity of our algorithm is quadratic with respect to word length. The proof of its validity is based on a result which states that for a…