Related papers: Braid groups are almost co-Hopfian

We construct braided versions $sV_{br}$ of the Brin-Thompson groups $sV$ and prove that they are of type $F_\infty$. The proof involves showing that the matching complexes of colored arcs on surfaces are highly connected.

Let $N$ be a compact, connected, non-orientable surface of genus $\rho$ with $n$ boundary components, with $\rho \ge 5$ and $n \ge 0$, and let $\mathcal{M} (N)$ be the mapping class group of $N$. We show that, if $\mathcal{G}$ is a finite…

We classify extensions of a group $G$ by a braided 2-group $\mathcal{B}$ as defined by Drinfeld, Gelaki, Nikshych, and Ostrik. We describe such extensions as homotopy classes of maps from the classifying space of $G$ to the classifying…

We apply Majid's transmutation procedure to Hopf algebra maps $H \to \mathbb C[T]$, where $T$ is a compact abelian group, and explain how this construction gives rise to braided Hopf algebras over quotients of $T$ by subgroups that are…

We construct two families of representations of the braid group $B_n$ by considering conjugation actions on congruence subgroups of $GL_{n-1}(Z[t^{\pm 1},q^{\pm 1}])$. We show that many of these representations are faithful modulo the…

We describe an algebraic proof of the well-known topological fact that $\pi_1(SO(n)) \cong Z/2Z$. The fundamental group of $SO(n)$ appears in our approach as the center of a certain finite group defined by generators and relations. The…

We study the problem of determining the isomorphism classes of the virtually cyclic subgroups of the n-string braid groups B_n(S^2) of the 2-sphere S^2. If n is odd, or if n is even and sufficiently large, we obtain the complete…

We study homotopy groups of spaces of long links in Euclidean space of codimension at least three. With multiple components, they admit split injections from homotopy groups of spheres. We show that, up to knotting, these account for all…

We introduce and study a family of groups $\mathbf{BB}_n$, called the blocked-braid groups, which are quotients of Artin's braid groups $\mathbf{B}_n$, and have the corresponding symmetric groups $\Sigma_n$ as quotients. They are defined by…

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…

Let n>3, and let L be a Lagrangian embedding of an n-disk into the cotangent bundle of n-dimensional Euclidean space that agrees with the cotangent fiber over a non-zero point x outside a compact set. Assume that L is disjoint from the…

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…

We introduce and develop a language of semigroups over the braid groups for a study of braid monodromy factorizations (bmf's) of plane algebraic curves and other related objects. As an application we give a new proof of Orevkov's theorem on…

A braided generalization of the concept of Hopf algebra (quantum group) is presented. The generalization overcomes an inherent geometrical inhomogeneity of quantum groups, in the sense of allowing completely pointless objects. All…

In the work we discuss two invariants of conjugacy classes of braids. The first invariant is the conformal module which occurred in connection with the interest in the 13th Hilbert Problem. The second is a popular dynamical invariant, the…

We solve the isomorphism problem for braid groups on trees with $n = 4$ or 5 strands. We do so in three main steps, each of which is interesting in its own right. First, we establish some tools and terminology for dealing with computations…

We prove that if g and n are integers at least two, then the abstract commensurator of the braid group with n strands on a closed orientable surface of genus g is naturally isomorphic to the extended mapping class group of a compact…

We consider the universal family $E_n^d$ of superelliptic curves: each curve $\Sigma_n^d$ in the family is a $d$-fold covering of the unit disk, totally ramified over a set $P$ of $n$ distinct points; $\Sigma_n^d\hookrightarrow E_n^d\to…

Every countable group $G$ can be embedded in a finitely generated group $G^*$ that is hopfian and complete, i.e. $G^*$ has trivial centre and every epimorphism $G^*\to G^*$ is an inner automorphism. Every finite subgroup of $G^*$ is…

In this paper we consider the cohomology of four groups related to the virtual braids of [Kauffman] and [Goussarov-Polyak-Viro], namely the pure and non-pure virtual braid groups (PvB_n and vB_n, respectively), and the pure and non-pure…