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 automorphism groups of free groups in terms of the actions on the generators of free groups.
We also give a systematic way of constructing and expressing these braid group representations in terms of a new gadget, called covering groupoid.
We prove that each generator $\widetildeβ_i$ of braid group inside mapping class group induced by $d$-fold covering is the product of $d-1$ Dehn twists on the surface.
After defining reduced minimum braid word and criteria for a braid family representative, different braid family representatives are derived, and a correspondence between them and families of knots and links given in Conway notation is established.
We show that the limiting Khovanov chain complex of any infinite positive braid categorifies the Jones-Wenzl projector. This result extends Lev Rozansky's categorification of the Jones-Wenzl projectors using the limiting complex of infinite torus braids. We also show a similar result for the limiting Lipshitz-Sarkar-Khovanov homotopy types of the closures of such braids. Extensions to more general infinite braids are also considered.
A sequence of Temperley-Lieb algebra elements corresponding to torus braids with growing twisting numbers converges to the Jones-Wenzl projector. We show that a sequence of categorification complexes of these braids also has a limit which may serve as a categorification of the Jones-Wenzl projector.
This paper describes a family of pseudo-Anosov braids with small dilatation. The smallest dilatations occurring for braids with 3, 4 and 5 strands appear in this family. A pseudo-Anosov braid with 2g+1 strands determines a hyperelliptic mapping class with the same dilatation on a genus-g surface. Penner showed that logarithms of least dilatations of pseudo-Anosov maps on a genus-g surface grow asymptotically with the genus like 1/g, and gave explicit examples of mapping classes with dilatations bounded above by log 11/g. Bauer later improved this bound to log 6/g. The braids in this paper give…
In this paper, we show that the volumes for a family of A-adequate closed braids can be bounded above and below in terms of the twist number, the number of braid strings, and a quantity that can be read from the combinatorics of a given closed braid diagram. We also show that the volumes for many of these closed braids can be bounded in terms of a single stable coefficient of the colored Jones polynomial, thus showing that this collection of closed braids satisfies a Coarse Volume Conjecture. By expanding to a wider family of closed braids, we also obtain volume bounds in terms of the number o…
We prove that under fairly general conditions an iterated exchange move gives infinitely many non-conjugate braids. As a consequence, every knot has infinitely many conjugacy classes of n-braid representations if and only if it has one admitting an exchange move.
The dilatation of a pseudo-Anosov braid is a conjugacy invariant. In this paper, we study the dilatation of a special family of pseudo-Anosov braids. We prove an inductive formula to compute their dilatation, a monotonicity and an asymptotic behavior of the dilatation for this family of braids. We also give an example of a family of pseudo-Anosov braids with arbitrarily small dilatation such that the mapping torus obtained from such braid has 2 cusps and has an arbitrarily large volume.
We prove that the size of the super summit set of a braid can grow exponentially with the canonical length of the braid, even for pseudo-Anosov braids.
We give two general constructions of braid equivalences which exist between certain deformations of the 2-branched Horsehoe map. We then give numerical evidence suggesting that these constructions of braid equivalences are always realised in the Hénon family.
We show that there is a family of pseudo-Anosov braids independently parameterized by the braid index and the (canonical) length whose smallest conjugacy invariant sets grow exponentially in the braid index and linearly in the length and conclude that the conjugacy problem remains exponential in the braid index under the current knowledge.
We propose a family of new representations of the braid groups on surfaces that extend linear representations of the braid groups on a disc such as the Burau representation and the Lawrence-Krammer-Bigelow representation.
Li-York theorem tells us that a period 3 orbit for a continuous map of the interval into itself implies the existence of a periodic orbit of every period. This paper concerns an analogue of the theorem for homeomorphisms of the 2-dimensional disk. In this case a periodic orbit is specified by a braid type and on the set of all braid types Boyland's dynamical partial order can be defined. We describe the partial order on a family of braids and show that a period 3 orbit of pseudo-Anosov braid type implies the Smale-horseshoe map which is a factor possessing complicated chaotic dynamics.
We define a limiting $\mathfrak{sl}_N$ Khovanov-Rozansky homology for semi-infinite positive multi-colored braids, and we show that this limiting homology categorifies a highest-weight projector for a large class of such braids. This effectively completes the extension of Cautis' similar result for infinite twist braids, begun in our earlier papers with Islambouli and Abel. We also present several similar results for other families of semi-infinite and bi-infinite multi-colored braids.
This paper is concerned with detecting when a closed braid and its axis are 'mutually braided' in the sense of Rudolph. It deals with closed braids which are fibred links, the simplest case being closed braids which present the unknot. The geometric condition for mutual braiding refers to the existence of a close control on the way in which the whole family of fibre surfaces meet the family of discs spanning the braid axis. We show how such a braid can be presented naturally as a word in the `band generators' of the braid group discussed by Birman, Ko and Lee in their recent account of the ban…
We present a generalization of the Dehornoy-Brin braided Thompson group $BV_2$ that uses recursive braids. Our new groups are denoted by $BV_{n,r}(H)$, for all $n\geq 2,r\geq 1$ and $H \leq \mathcal{B}_n$, where $\mathcal{B}_n$ is the braid group on $n$ strands. We give a new approach to deal with braided Thompson groups by using strand diagrams. We show that $BV_{n,r}(H)$ is finitely generated if $H$ is finitely generated.
A generalization of the topological fundamental group is developed in order to exhibit a topologically complete braid group containing Artin's braid group on infinitely many strands with respect to the following notion of convergence: A sequence of braids b(n) converges to the trivial braid iff for each M>0 eventually the first M strands of b(n) are trivial.
An infinitary version of braid groups has been considered as a direct limit of n-braid groups. However, we can imagine more complicated braids with infinitely many strings. We invetisgate basic properties especially when the number of strings is countable.
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 Salem-Boyd sequences. These examples show that the logarithms of least dilatations of pseudo-Anosov braids on $2g+1$ strands are bounded above by $\log(2 + \sqrt{3})/g$. It follows that the asymptotic behavior of least dilatations of pseudo-Anosov, hyperelliptic surface homeomorphisms is identical to that found by Penner for general surface homeomorphisms. T…
In this paper, we give a proof of the result of Brandenbursky and Kȩdra which says that the commutator subgroup of the infinite braid group admits stably unbounded norms. Moreover, we observe the norms which we constructed are equivalent to the biinvariant word norm studied by Brandenbursky and Kȩdra.
We show that the limiting unicolored $\mathfrak{sl}(N)$ Khovanov-Rozansky chain complex of any infinite positive braid categorifies a highest-weight projector. This result extends an earlier result of Cautis categorifying highest-weight projectors using the limiting complex of infinite torus braids. Additionally, we show that the results hold in the case of colored HOMFLY-PT Khovanov-Rozansky homology as well. An application of this result is given in finding a partial isomorphism between the HOMFLY-PT homology of any braid positive link and the stable HOMFLY-PT homology of the infinite torus …
The Lawrence representation $L_{n,m}$ is a family of homological representation of the braid group $B_n$, which specializes to the reduced Burau and the Lawrence-Krammer representation when $m$ is 1 and 2. In this article we show that the Lawrence representation is faithful for $m \geq 2$.
We give an upper bound for the dealternating number of a closed 3-braid. As applications, we determine the dealternating numbers, the alternation numbers and the Turaev genera of some closed positive 3-braids. We also show that there exist infinitely many positive knots with any dealternating number (or any alternation number) and any braid index.
Twisting a knot $K$ in $S^3$ along a disjoint unknot $c$ produces a twist family of knots $\{K_n\}$ indexed by the integers. Comparing the behaviors of the Seifert genus $g(K_n)$ and the slice genus $g_4(K_n)$ under twistings, we prove that if $g(K_n) - g_4(K_n) < C$ for some constant $C$ for infinitely many integers $n > 0$ or $g(K_n) / g_4(K_n) \to 1$ as $n \to \infty$, then either the winding number of $K$ about $c$ is zero or the winding number equals the wrapping number. As a key application, if $\{K_n\}$ or the mirror twist family $\{\overline{K_n}\}$ contains infinitely many tight fiber…
Drinfel'd used associators to construct families of universal representations of braid groups. We consider semi-associators (i.e., we drop the pentagonal axiom and impose a normalization in degree one). We show that the process may be reversed, to obtain semi-associators from universal representations of 3-braids. We view braid groups as subgroups of braid-permutation groups. We construct a family of universal representations of braid-permutation groups, without using associators. All representations in the family are faithful, defined over $\bbQ$ by simple explicit formulae. We show that they…
In this paper we are interested in BB knots, namely knots and links where the bridge index equals the braid index. Supported by observations from experiments, it is conjectured that BB knots possess a special geometric/physical property (and might even be characterized by it): if the knot is realized by a (closed) springy metal wire, then the equilibrium state of the wire is in an almost planar configuration of multiple (overlapping) circles. In this paper we provide a heuristic explanation to the conjecture and explore the plausibility of the conjecture numerically. We also identify BB knots …
Virtual knots arise in the study of Gauss diagrams and Vassiliev invariants of usual knots. Virtual braids correspond naturally to virtual knots. We consider the group of virtual braids on n strings VB_n and its Burau representation, in particular we study their homological properties. We prove that the plus-construction of the classifying space of the virtual braid group on the infinite number of strings is an infinite loop space which is equivalent to a product of Q(S^0), S^1 and an infinite loop space Y. Connections with the K-functor of the integers are discussed.
We investigate the problem of characterising the family of strongly quasipositive links which have definite symmetrised Seifert forms and apply our results to the problem of determining when such a link can have an L-space cyclic branched cover. In particular, we show that if $δ_n = σ_1 σ_2 \ldots σ_{n-1}$ is the dual Garside element and $b = δ_n^k P \in B_n$ is a strongly quasipositive braid whose braid closure $\widehat b$ is definite, then $k \geq 2$ implies that $\widehat b$ is one of the torus links $T(2, q), T(3,4), T(3,5)$ or pretzel links $P(-2, 2, m), P(-2,3,4)$. Applying Theorem 1.1 …
In this paper we present recent results toward the computation of the HOMFLYPT skein module of the lens spaces $L(p,1)$, $\mathcal{S}\left(L(p,1) \right)$, via braids. Our starting point is the knot theory of the solid torus ST and the Lambropoulou invariant, $X$, for knots and links in ST, the universal analogue of the HOMFLYPT polynomial in ST. The relation between $\mathcal{S}\left(L(p,1) \right)$ and $\mathcal{S}({\rm ST})$ is established in \cite{DLP} and it is shown that in order to compute $\mathcal{S}\left(L(p,1) \right)$, it suffices to solve an infinite system of equations obtained b…
In this paper we develop a braid theoretic approach for computing the Kauffman bracket skein module of the lens spaces $L(p,q)$, KBSM($L(p,q)$), for $q\neq 0$. For doing this, we introduce a new concept, that of an {\it unoriented braid}. Unoriented braids are obtained from standard braids by ignoring the natural top-to-bottom orientation of the strands. We first define the {\it generalized Temperley-Lieb algebra of type B}, $TL_{1, n}$, which is related to the knot theory of the solid torus ST, and we obtain the universal Kauffman bracket type invariant, $V$, for knots and links in ST, via a …
We define a family of the braid group representations via the action of the $R$-matrix (of the quasitriangular extension) of the restricted quantum $\mathfrak{sl}(2)$ on a tensor power of a simple projective module. This family is an extension of the Lawrence representation specialized at roots of unity. Although the center of the braid group has finite order on the specialized Laurence representations, this action is faithful for our extension.
We present the first examples of elements in the fundamental group of the space of Legendrian links in the standard contact 3-sphere whose action on the Legendrian contact DGA is of infinite order. This allows us to construct the first families of Legendrian links that can be shown to admit infinitely many Lagrangian fillings by Floer-theoretic techniques. These families include the first known Legendrian links with infinitely many fillings that are not rainbow closures of positive braids, and the smallest Legendrian link with infinitely many fillings known to date. We discuss how to use our e…
We construct a family of six dimensional block representations of the braid group $B_3$ on three strings. We show that some of these representations can be used to detect braid vertibility of some known knots and others of 9 and 10 crossings.
We define a quasihomomorphism from braid groups to the concordance group of knots and examine its properties and consequences of its existence. In particular, we provide a relation between the stable four ball genus in the concordance group and the stable commutator length in braid groups, and produce examples of infinite families of concordance classes of knots with uniformly bounded four ball genus. We also provide applications to the geometry of the infinite braid group. In particular, we show that its commutator subgroup admits a stably unbounded conjugation invariant norm. This answers an…
The braided Ptolemy-Thompson group $T^*$ is an extension of the Thompson group $T$ by the full braid group $B_{\infty}$ on infinitely many strands. This group is a simplified version of the acyclic extension considered by Greenberg and Sergiescu, and can be viewed as a mapping class group of a certain infinite planar surface. In a previous paper we showed that $T^*$ is finitely presented. Our main result here is that $T^*$ (and $T$) is asynchronously combable. The method of proof is inspired by Lee Mosher's proof of automaticity of mapping class groups.
Computing polynomial invariants for knots and links using braid representations relies heavily on finding the trace of Hecke algebra elements. There is no easy method known for computing the trace and hence it becomes difficult to compute the known polynomial invariants of knots using their braid representations. In this paper, we provide an algorithm to compute the trace of the Hecke algebra representation of any braid. We simplify this algorithm and write a Mathematica program to compute the invariants such as Alexander polynomial, Jones polynomial, HOMFLY-PT polynomial and Khovanov homology…
We construct an infinite tower of covering spaces over the configuration space of $n-1$ distinct non-zero points in the complex plane. This results in an action of the braid group $\mathbb{B}_n$ on the set of $n$-adic integers $\mathbb{Z}_n$ for all natural numbers $n\geq 2$. We study some of the properties of these actions such as continuity and transitivity. The construction of the actions involves a new way of associating to any braid $B$ an infinite sequence of braids, whose braid types are invariants of $B$. We present computations for the cases of $n=2$ and $n=3$ and use these to show th…
We discuss how to apply work of L. Rudolph to braid conjugacy class invariants to obtain potentially effective obstructions to a slice knot being ribbon. We then apply these ideas to a family of braid conjugacy class invariants coming from Khovanov-Lee theory and explain why we do not obtain effective ribbon obstructions in this case.
We classify the (finite and infinite) virtually cyclic subgroups of the pure braid groups $P_{n}(RP^2)$ of the projective plane. The maximal finite subgroups of $P_{n}(RP^2)$ are isomorphic to the quaternion group of order 8 if $n=3$, and to $\Z_{4}$ if $n\geq 4$. Further, for all $n\geq 3$, up to isomorphism, the following groups are the infinite virtually cyclic subgroups of $P_{n}(RP^2)$: $\Z$, $\Z_{2} \times \Z$ and the amalgamated product $\Z_{4} \ast_{\Z_{2}} \Z_{4}$.
In this paper we define the $p$-adic framed braid group ${\mathcal F}_{\infty,n}$, arising as the inverse limit of the modular framed braids and we give topological generators for ${\mathcal F}_{\infty, n}$. We also give geometric interpretations for the $p$-adic framed braids. We then construct a $p$-adic Yokonuma-Hecke algebra ${\rm Y}_{\infty,n}(u)$ as the inverse limit of a family of classical Yokonuma-Hecke algebras. These are quotients of the modular framed braid groups over a quadratic relation. We also give topological generators for ${\rm Y}_{\infty,n}(u)$. Finally, we construct on th…
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 transversally simple. The method of proof is topological and indirect.
Pursueing our investigations on the relations between Thompson groups and mapping class groups, we introduce the group $T^*$ (and its further generalizations) which is an extension of the Ptolemy-Thompson group $T$ by means of the full braid group $B_{\infty}$ on infinitely many strands. We prove that it is a finitely presented group with solvable word problem, and give an explicit presentation of it.
We describe random walk boundaries (in particular, the Poisson--Furstenberg, or PF-boundary) for a vast family of groups in terms of the hyperbolic boundary of a special free subgroup. We prove that almost all trajectories of the random walk (with respect to an arbitrary nondegenerate measure on the group) converge to points of that boundary. This implies the stability (in the sense of \cite{Ver}) of the so-called Markov--Ivanovsky normal form for braids.
Garside-theoretical solutions to the conjugacy problem in braid groups depend on the determination of a characteristic subset of the conjugacy class of any given braid, e.g. the sliding circuit set. It is conjectured that, among rigid braids with a fixed number of strands, the size of this set is bounded by a polynomial in the length of the braids. In this paper we suggest a more precise bound: for rigid braids with $N$ strands and of Garside length $L$, the sliding circuit set should have at most $C\cdot L^{N-2}$ elements, for some constant $C$. We construct a family of braids which realise t…
We use some Lie group theory and Budney's unitarization of the Lawrence-Krammer representation, to prove that for generic parameters of definite form the image of the representation (also on certain types of subgroups) is dense in the unitary group. This implies that, except possibly for closures of full-twist braids, all links have infinitely many conjugacy classes of braid representations on any non-minimal number of (and at least 4) strands.
We consider the universal family $E_n^d$ of superelliptic curves: each curve $Σ_n^d$ in the family is a $d$-fold covering of the unit disk, totally ramified over a set $P$ of $n$ distinct points; $Σ_n^d\hookrightarrow E_n^d\to C_n$ is a fibre bundle, where $C_n$ is the configuration space of $n$ distinct points. We find that $E_n^d$ is the classifying space for the complex braid group of type $B(d,d,n)$ and we compute a big part of the integral homology of $E_n^d,$ including a complete calculation of the stable groups over finite fields by means of Poincarè series. The computation of the main …
V.V. Sharko in his papers and books has investigated functions on manifolds and cobordism. Braids intimately connect with functions on manifolds. These connections are represented by mapping class groups of corresponding discs, by fundamental groups of corresponding punctured discs, and by some other topological or algebraic structures. This paper presents selected algebraic methods and results of braids, links, cobordism connect with investigations by V.V. Sharko. These includes group theoretic results on braids and links, infinitesimal braid group relations and connections as well as connect…
Classifying spaces for families of virtually abelian subgroups of surface braid groups
Universidad de Sevilla（塞维利亚大学）；Instituto de Matemáticas (IMUS), Universidad de Sevilla（塞维利亚大学数学研究所）；Instituto de Matemáticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México（墨西哥国立自治大学数学研究所）
Given a family of groups admitting a braided monoidal structure (satisfying mild assumptions) we construct a family of spaces on which the groups act and whose connectivity yields, via a classical argument of Quillen, homological stability for the family of groups. We show that stability also holds with both polynomial and abelian twisted coefficients, with no further assumptions. This new construction of a family of spaces from a family of groups recovers known spaces in the classical examples of stable families of groups, such as the symmetric groups, general linear groups and mapping class …
We investigate a family of (reducible) representations of Artin's braid groups corresponding to a specific solution to the Yang-Baxter equation. The images of the braid groups under these representations are finite groups, and we identify them precisely as extensions of extra-special 2-groups. The decompositions of the representations into their irreducible constituents are determined, which allows us to relate them to the well-known Jones representations of the braid groups factoring over Temperley-Lieb algebras and the corresponding link invariants.
We examine the action of the fundamental group $Γ$ of a Riemann surface with $m$ punctures on the middle dimensional homology of a regular fiber in a Lefschetz fibration, and describe to what extent this action can be recovered from the intersection numbers of vanishing cycles. Basis changes for the vanishing cycles result in a nonlinear action of the framed braid group $\widetilde{\mathcal B}$ on $m$ strings on a suitable space of $m\times m$ matrices. This action is determined by a family of cohomologous 1-cocycles ${\mathcal S}_c:\widetilde{\mathcal B}\to GL_m({\mathbb{Z}}[Γ])$ parametrized…
Let B_n be the braid group on n strands, with n at least 4, and let Mod(S) be the extended mapping class group of the sphere with n+1 punctures. We show that the abstract commensurator of B_n is isomorphic to a semidirect product of Mod(S) with a group we refer to as the transvection subgroup, Tv(B_n). We also show that Tv(B_n) is itself isomorphic to a semidirect product of an infinite dimensional rational vector space with the multiplicative group of nonzero rational numbers.
In this paper we find a finite set of generators and defining relations for the singular pure braid group $SP_n$, $n \geq 3$, that is a subgroup of the singular braid group $SG_n$. Using this presentation, we prove that the center of $SG_n$ (which is equal to the center of $SP_n$ for $n \geq 3$) is a direct factor in $SP_n$ but it is not a direct factor in $SP_n$. We introduce subgroups of camomile type and prove that the singular pure braid group $SP_n$, $n \geq 5$, is a subgroup of camomile type in $SG_n$. Also we construct the fundamental singquandle using a representation of the singular b…
Let $n\geq 3$. In this paper we deal with the conjugacy problem in the Artin braid group quotient $B_n/[P_n,P_n]$. To solve it we use systems of equations over the integers arising from the action of $B_n/[P_n,P_n]$ over the abelianization of the pure Artin braid group $P_n/[P_n,P_n]$. Using this technique we also realize explicitly infinite virtually cyclic subgroups in $B_n/[P_n,P_n]$.
