In 1996 E. Formanek classified all the irreducible complex representations of $B_n$ of dimension at most $n-1,$ where $B_n$ is the Artin braid group on $n$ strings. In this paper we extend this classification to the representations of dimension $n,$ for $n\geq 9$. We prove that all such representations are equivalent to a tensor product of a one-dimensional representation and a specialization of a certain one-parameter family of $n-$dimensional representations, that was first discovered in 1996 by Tong, Yang, and Ma. We use our classification of irreducible complex representations of corank two, in the preprint math.GR/0003047.
We obtain new presentations for the imprimitive complex reflection groups of type $(de,e,r)$ and their braid groups $B(de,e,r)$ for $d,r \ge 2$. Diagrams for these presentations are proposed. The presentations have much in common with Coxeter presentations of real reflection groups. They are positive and homogeneous, and give rise to quasi-Garside structures. Diagram automorphisms correspond to group automorphisms. The new presentation shows how the braid group $B(de,e,r)$ is a semidirect product of the braid group of affine type $\widetilde A_{r-1}$ and an infinite cyclic group. Elements of $…
We prove that the braid group $B_4$ on 4 strings, as well as its central quotient $B_4/< z>$, have the property RD of Haagerup-Jolissaint. It follows that the automorphism group $\Aut(F_2)$ of the free group $F_2$ on 2 generators has property RD. We also prove that the braid group $B_4$ is a group of intermediate rank (of dimension 3). Namely, we show that both $B_4$ and its central quotient have exponential mesoscopic rank, i.e., that they contain exponentially many large flat balls which are not included in flats.
Inverse braid monoid describes a structure on braids where the number of strings is not fixed. So, some strings of initial $n$ may be deleted. In the paper we show that many properties and objects based on braid groups may be extended to the inverse braid monoids. Namely we prove an inclusion into a monoid of partial monomorphisms of a free group. This gives a solution of the word problem. Another solution is obtained by an approach similar to that of Garside. We give also the analogues of Artin presentation with two generators and Sergiescu graph-presentations.
In this paper we determine the automorphism groups of the profinite braid groups with four or more strings in terms of the profinite Grothendieck-Teichmüller group.
We describe Artin's braid group on a (fixed) finite number of strings as a crossed module over itself. In particular, we interpret the braid relations as crossed module structure relations.
The goal of this paper is to construct examples of centralizers in the Artin braid groups requiring the number of generators quadratic in the number of strings. These examples disprove a recent conjecture of N. Franco and J. Gonzalez-Meneses.
Let $M$ be a closed oriented surface of genus $g\ge 1$, let $B_n(M)$ be the braid group of $M$ on $n$ strings, and let $SB_n(M)$ be the corresponding singular braid monoid. Our purpose in this paper is to prove that the desingularization map $η: SB_n(M) \to \Z [B_n(M)]$, introduced in the definition of the Vassiliev invariants (for braids on surfaces), is injective.
In this paper, we prove that each automorphism of a surface braid group is induced by a homeomorphism of the underlying surface, provided that this surface is a closed, connected, orientable surface of genus at least 2, and the number of strings is at least three. This result generalizes previous results for classical braid groups, mapping class groups, and Torelli groups.
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 this braid group is a right angled Artin group if X is planar. We prove their conjecture if X is a tree whose nodes all lie in a single interval of X.
In this article we study the curvature properties of the order complex of a graded poset under a metric that we call the ``orthoscheme metric''. In addition to other results, we characterize which rank 4 posets have CAT(0) orthoscheme complexes and by applying this theorem to standard posets and complexes associated with four-generator Artin groups, we are able to show that the 5-string braid group is the fundamental group of a compact nonpositively curved space.
We consider the irreducible representations each of dimension 2 of the necklace braid group $\mathcal{NB}_n$ ($n=2,3,4$). We then consider the tensor product of the representations of $\mathcal{NB}_n$ ($n=2,3,4$) and determine necessary and sufficient condition under which the constructed representations are irreducible. Finally, we determine conditions under which the irreducible representations of $\mathcal{NB}_n$ ($n=2,3,4$) of degree 2 are unitary relative to a hermitian positive definite matrix
This paper is the first part of a series of papers aimed at improving the classification by Formanek of the irreducible representations of Artin braid groups of small dimension. In this paper we classify all the irreducible complex representations $ρ$ of Artin braid group $B_n$ with the condition $rank (ρ(σ_i)-1)=2$ where $σ_i$ are the standard generators. For $n \geq 7$ they all belong to some one-parameter family of $n$-dimensional representations.
We prove that the symplectic group $Sp(2n,\mathbb Z)$ and the mapping class group $Mod_{S}$ of a compact surface $S$ satisfy the $R_{\infty}$ property. We also show that $B_n(S)$, the full braid group on $n$-strings of a surface $S$, satisfies the $R_{\infty}$ property in the cases where $S$ is either the compact disk $D$, or the sphere $S^2$. This means that for any automorphism $ϕ$ of $G$, where $G$ is one of the above groups, the number of twisted $ϕ$-conjugacy classes is infinite.
In this paper we describe the structure of a group of conjugating automorphisms $C_n$ of free group and prove that this structure is similar to the structure of a braid group $B_n$ with $n>1$ strings. We find the linear representation of group $C_n$. Also we prove that the braid group $B_n(S^2)$ of 2--sphere, mapping class group M(0,n) of the $n$--punctured 2--sphere and the braid group $B_3(P^2)$ of the projective plane are linear. Using result of J. Dyer, E. Formanek, E. Grossman and the faithful linear representation of Lawrence--Krammer of $B_4$ we construct faithful linear representation …
One of the most interesting questions about a group is if its word problem can be solved and how. The word problem in the braid group is of particular interest to topologists, algebraists and geometers, and is the target of intensive current research. We look at the braid group from a topological point of view (rather than a geometrical one). The braid group is defined by the action of diffeomorphisms on the fundamental group of a punctured disk. We exploit the topological definition of the braid group in order to give a new approach for solving its word problem. Our algorithm is faster, in co…
Our aim is to determine the lower central series (LCS) and derived series (DS) for the braid groups of the sphere and of the finitely-punctured sphere. We show that for all n (resp. all n\geq 5), the LCS (resp. DS) of the n-string braid group B\_n(S^2) is constant from the commutator subgroup onwards, and that Γ\_2(B\_4(S^2)) is a semi-direct product of the quaternion group by a free group of rank 2. For n=4, we determine the DS of B\_4(S^2), as well as its quotients. For n \geq 1, the class of m-string braid groups B\_m(S^2) \ {x\_1,...,x\_n} of the n-punctured sphere includes the Artin braid…
We give a presentation by generators and relations of a certain monoid generating a subgroup of index two in the group Aut(F_2) of automorphisms of the rank two free group F_2 and show that it can be realized as a monoid in the group B_4 of braids on four strings. In the second part we use Christoffel words to construct an explicit basis of F_2 lifting any given basis of the free abelian group Z^2. We further give an algorithm allowing to decide whether two elements of F_2 form a basis or not. We also show that, under suitable conditions, a basis has a unique conjugate consisting of two palind…
For every compact surface $S$ of finite type (possibly with boundary components but without punctures), we show that when $n$ is sufficiently large there is no lift $σ$ of the surface braid group $B_n(S)$ to $\operatorname{Diff}(S,n)$, the group of $C^1$ diffeomorphisms preserving $n$ marked points and restricting to the identity on the boundary. Our methods are applied to give a new proof of Morita's non-lifting theorem in the best possible range. These techniques extend to the more general setting of spaces of codimension-$2$ embeddings, and we obtain corresponding results for spherical moti…
Let M be a compact, connected non-orientable surface without boundary and of genus g greater than or equal to 3. We investigate the pure braid groups P_n(M) of M, and in particular the possible splitting of the Fadell-Neuwirth short exact sequence 1 --> P_m(M {x_1,...,x_n}) --> P_{n+m}(M) --> P_n(M) --> 1, where m,n are positive integers, and the homomorphism p*:P_{n+m}(M) --> P_n(M) corresponds geometrically to forgetting the last m strings. This problem is equivalent to that of the existence of a section for the associated fibration p:F_{n+m}(M)} --> F_n(M) of configuration spaces, defined b…
We determine the lower central and derived series of the n-string braid groups B_n(RP^2) of the real projective plane. We are motivated in part by the study of Fadell-Neuwirth short exact sequences, but the problem is interesting in its own right. For n=1,2, B_n(RP^2) is finite and its lower central and derived series are known. If n>2 (resp. n>4), we show that the lower central (resp. derived) series of B_n(RP^2) is constant from the commutator subgroup onwards, and we exhibit a presentation of the commutator subgroup. In the exceptional cases n=3,4, we determine explicitly the complete deriv…
We show that each of the Artin groups of type $B_n$ and $D_n$ can be presented as a semidirect product $F \rtimes {\cal B}_n$, where $F$ is a free group and ${\cal B}_n$ is the $n$-string braid group. We explain how these semidirect product structures arise quite naturally from fibrations, and observe that, in each case, the action of the braid group ${\cal B}_n$ on the free group $F$ is classical. We prove that, for each of the semidirect products, the group of automorphisms which leave invariant the normal subgroup $F$ is small: namely, ${\rm Out}(A(B_n),F)$ has order 2, and ${\rm Out}(A(D_n…
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 classification. For small even values of n, the classification is complete up to an explicit finite number of open cases. In order to prove our main theorem, we obtain a number of other results of independent interest, notably the characterisation of the centralisers and normalisers of the finite cyclic and dicyclic subgroups of B_n(S^2), a result concerning conjugate …
Braid groups and mapping class groups have many features in common. Similarly to the notion of inverse braid monoid inverse mapping class monoid is defined. It concerns surfaces with punctures, but among given $n$ punctures several can be omitted. This corresponds to braids where the number of strings is not fixed. In the paper we give the analogue of the Dehn-Nilsen-Baer theorem, propose a presentation of the inverse mapping class monoid for a punctured sphere and study the word problem. This shows that certain properties and objects based on mapping class groups may be extended to the invers…
Let M be a surface, perhaps with boundary, and either compact, or with a finite number of points removed from the interior of the surface. We consider the inclusion i: F\_n(M) --\textgreater{} M^n of the nth configuration space F\_n(M) of M into the n-fold Cartesian product of M, as well as the induced homomorphism i\_\#: P\_n(M) --\textgreater{} (π\_1(M))^n, where P\_n(M) is the n-string pure braid group of M. Both i and i\_\# were studied initially by J.Birman who conjectured that Ker(i\_\#) is equal to the normal closure of the Artin pure braid group P\_n in P\_n(M). The conjecture was late…
We prove that, for $n\geq 3$, the minimal dimension of a model of the classifying space of the full braid group $B_n$, and of the pure braid group $P_n$, with respect to the family of virtually cyclic groups is $n$.
We give a method to construct new self-adjoint representations of the braid group. In particular, we give a family of irreducible self-adjoint representations of dimension arbitrarily large. Moreover we give sufficient conditions for a representation to be constructed with this method.
We linearize the Artin representation of the braid group given by (right) automorphisms of a free group providing a linear faithful representation of the braid group. This result is generalized to obtain linear representations for the coloured braid groupoid and pure braid group too. Applications to some areas of two-dimensional physics are discussed.
We solve the simultaneous conjugacy problem in Artin's braid groups and, more generally, in Garside groups, by means of a complete, effectively computable, finite invariant. This invariant generalizes the one-dimensional notion of super summit set to arbitrary dimensions. One key ingredient in our solution is the introduction of a provable high-dimensional version of the Birman--Ko--Lee cycling theorem. The complexity of this solution is a small degree polynomial in the cardinalities of our generalized super summit sets and the input parameters. Computer experiments suggest that the cardinalit…
