Final version, revised to take account of the comments of readers. A review article, to appear in the Handbook of Knot Theory, edited by W. Menasco and M. Thistlethwaite. 91 pages, 24 figures
This article is about Artin's braid group and its role in knot theory. We set ourselves two goals: (i) to provide enough of the essential background so that our review would be accessible to graduate students, and (ii) to focus on those parts of the subject in which major progress was made, or interesting new proofs of known results were discovered, during the past 20 years. A central theme that we try to develop is to show ways in which structure first discovered in the braid groups generalizes to structure in Garside groups, Artin groups and surface mapping class groups. However, the literature is extensive, and for reasons of space our coverage necessarily omits many very interesting developments. Open problems are noted and so-labelled, as we encounter them.
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.
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 or cohomological characteristics of right-angled Artin groups can be applied. Finally we show that a given graph is planar iff the first homology of its 2-braid group is torsion-free and leave the corresponding statement for $n$-braid groups as a conjecture along with few other conjectures about graphs whose braid groups of index $\le 4$ are right-angled Art…
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.
We define the braid groups of a two-dimensional orbifold and introduce conventions for drawing braid pictures. We use these to realize the Artin groups associated to the spherical Coxeter diagrams A_n, B_n=C_n and D_n and the affine diagrams tilde{A}_n, tilde{B}_n, tilde{C}_n and tilde{D}_n as subgroups of the braid groups of various simple orbifolds. The cases D_n, tilde{B}_n, tilde{C}_n and tilde{D}_n are new. In each case the Artin group is a normal subgroup with abelian quotient; in all cases except tilde{A}_n the quotient is finite. We illustrate the value of our braid calculus by perform…
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.
This article is a survey on the braid groups, the Artin groups, and the Garside groups. It is a presentation, accessible to non-experts, of various topological and algebraic aspects of these groups. It is also a report on three points of the theory: the faithful linear representations, the cohomology, and the geometrical representations.
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 $B_n/[P_n,P_n]$.
We prove that an arbitrary right-angled Artin group $G$ admits a quasi-isometric group embedding into a right-angled Artin group defined by the opposite graph of a tree. Consequently, $G$ admits quasi-isometric group embeddings into a pure braid group and into the area-preserving diffeomorphism groups of the 2--disk and the 2--sphere, answering questions due to Crisp--Wiest and M. Kapovich. Another corollary is that a pure braid group contains a closed hyperbolic manifold group as a quasi-isometrically embedded subgroup up to dimension eight. Finally, we show that the isomorphism problem, conj…
We construct an embedding of any right-angled Artin group $G(Δ)$ defined by a graph $Δ$ into a graph braid group. The number of strands required for the braid group is equal to the chromatic number of $Δ$. This construction yields an example of a hyperbolic surface subgroup embedded in a two strand planar graph braid group.
According to the Tits conjecture proved by Crisp and Paris, [CP], the subgroups of the braid group generated by proper powers of the Artin elements are presented by the commutators of generators which are powers of commuting elements. Hence they are naturally presented as right-angled Artin groups. The case of subgroups generated by powers of the band generators is more involved. We show that the groups are right-angled Artin groups again, if all generators are proper powers with exponent at least 3. We also give a presentation in cases at the other extreme, when all generators occur with expo…
Artin groups of finite type are not as well understood as braid groups. This is due to the additional geometric properties of braid groups coming from their close connection to mapping class groups. For each Artin group of finite type, we construct a space (simplicial complex) analogous to Teichmueller space that satisfies a weak nonpositive curvature condition and also a space "at infinity" analogous to the space of projective measured laminations. Using these constructs, we deduce several group-theoretic properties of Artin groups of finite type that are well-known in the case of braid group…
Let n be greater than or equal to 3. We study the quotient group B\_n/[P n,P\_n] of the Artin braid group B\_n by the commutator subgroup of its pure Artin braid group P\_n. We show that B\_n/[P n,P\_n] is a crystallographic group, and in the case n=3, we analyse explicitly some of its subgroups. We also prove that B\_n/[P n,P\_n] possesses torsion, and we show that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the conjugacy classes of the finite-order elements of B\_n/[P n,P\_n] with the conjugacy classes of the elements of odd order of the symmetric group S\_n, and that the isomorphism class …
Let $n, k \geq 3$. In this paper, we analyse the quotient group $B\_n/Γ\_k(P\_n)$ of the Artin braid group $B\_n$ by the subgroup $Γ\_k(P\_n)$ belonging to the lower central series of the Artin pure braid group $P\_n$. We prove that it is an almost-crystallographic group. We then focus more specifically on the case $k=3$. If $n \geq 5$, and if $τ\in N$ is such that $gcd(τ, 6) = 1$, we show that $B\_n/Γ\_3 (P\_n)$ possesses torsion $τ$ if and only if $S\_n$ does, and we prove that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the conjugacy classes of elements of order $τ$ in $B\_n/Γ\_3 (P\_n)$ w…
We study the action of the Artin braid group B_{2g+2} on the set of spin structures on a hyperelliptic curve of genus g, which reduces to that of the symmetric group. It has been already described in terms of the classical theory of Riemann surfaces. In this paper, we compute the S_{2g+2}-orbits of the spin structures of genus $g$ and the isotropy group G_i of each orbit in a purely combinatorial way.
We construct a group $Γ_{n}^{4}$ corresponding to the motion of points in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$ from the point of view of Delaunay triangulations. We study homomorphisms from pure braids on $n$ strands to the product of copies of $Γ_{n}^{4}$. We will also study the group of pure braids in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$, which is described by a fundamental group of the restricted configuration space of $\mathbb{R}^{3}$, and define the group homomorphism from the group of pure braids in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$ to $Γ_{n}^{4}$. In the end of this paper we give some comments about relations between the restricted configurat…
Let $G$ be one of the Artin groups of finite type ${\mathbf B}_n={\mathbf C}_n$, and affine type $\tilde{\mathbf A}_{n-1}$ and $\tilde{\mathbf C}_{n-1}$. In this paper, we show that if $α$ and $β$ are elements of $G$ such that $α^k=β^k$ for some nonzero integer $k$, then $α$ and $β$ are conjugate in $G$. For the Artin group of type $\mathbf A_n$, this was recently proved by J. González-Meneses. In fact, we prove a stronger theorem, from which the above result follows easily by using descriptions of those Artin groups as subgroups of the braid group on $n+1$ strands. Let $P$ be a subset of $\{1…
From a group $H$ and a non-trivial element $h$ of $H$, we define a representation $ρ: B_n \to \Aut(G)$, where $B_n$ denotes the braid group on $n$ strands, and $G$ denotes the free product of $n$ copies of $H$. Such a representation shall be called the Artin type representation associated to the pair $(H,h)$. The goal of the present paper is to study different aspects of these representations. Firstly, we associate to each braid $β$ a group $Γ_{(H,h)} (β)$ and prove that the operator $Γ_{(H,h)}$ determines a group invariant of oriented links. We then give a topological construction of the Arti…
We find finite presentations for the automorphism group of the Artin pure braid group and the automorphism group of the pure braid group associated to the full monomial group.
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 present a new algorithm to solve the conjugacy problem in Artin braid groups, which is faster than the one presented by Birman, Ko and Lee. This algorithm can be applied not only to braid groups, but to all Garside groups (which include finite type Artin groups and torus knot groups among others).
Each pointed topological space has an associated $π$-module, obtained from action of its first homotopy group on its second homotopy group. For the $3$-ball with a trivial link with $n$-components removed from its interior, its $π$-module $\mathcal{M}_n$ is of free type. In this paper we give an injection of the (extended) loop braid group into the group of automorphisms of $\mathcal{M}_n$. We give a topological interpretation of this injection, showing that it is both an extension of Artin's representation for braid groups and of Dahm's homomorphism for (extended) loop braid groups.
We show that the smallest non-cyclic quotients of braid groups are symmetric groups, proving a conjecture of Margalit. Moreover we recover results of Artin and Lin about the classification of homomorphisms from braid groups on n strands to symmetric groups on k letters, where k is at most n. Unlike the original proofs, our method does not use the Bertrand-Chebyshev theorem, answering a question of Artin. Similarly for mapping class group of closed orientable surfaces, the smallest non-cyclic quotient is given by the mod two reduction of the symplectic representation. We provide an elementary p…
The braid group $B_{n}$, endowed with Artin's presentation, admits two distinguished involutions. One is the anti-automorphism ${\rm{rev}}: B_{n} \to B_{n}$, $v \mapsto \bar{v}$, defined by reading braids in the reverse order (from right to left instead of left to right). Another one is the conjugation $τ:x \mapsto Δ^{-1}x Δ$ by the generalized half-twist (Garside element). More generally, the involution ${\rm{rev}}$ is defined for all Artin groups (equipped with Artin's presentation) and the involution $τ$ is defined for all Artin groups of finite type. A palindrome is an element invariant un…
In this article, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for embedding a finite index subgroup of Artin's braid group into the mapping class group of a connected orientable surface.
Based on a normal form for braid group elements suggested by Dehornoy, we prove several representations of braid groups by automorphisms of a free group to be faithful. This includes a simple proof of the standard Artin's representation being faithful.
We show that the Artin pure braid group on at least four strands is not residually free. Our results also show that the pure braid group on at least three strands has corank two.
The cycling operation is a special kind of conjugation that can be applied to elements in Artin's braid groups, in order to reduce their length. It is a key ingredient of the usual solutions to the conjugacy problem in braid groups. In their seminal paper on braid-cryptography, Ko, Lee et al. proposed the {\it cycling problem} as a hard problem in braid groups that could be interesting for cryptography. In this paper we give a polynomial solution to that problem, mainly by showing that cycling is surjective, and using a result by Maffre which shows that pre-images under cycling can be computed…
The goal of this mostly expository paper is to present several candidates for hyperbolic structures on irreducible Artin-Tits groups of spherical type and to elucidate some relations between them. Most constructions are algebraic analogues of previously known hyperbolic structures on Artin braid groups coming from natural actions of these groups on curve graphs and (modified) arc graphs of punctured disks.
This article is dedicate to cabling on virtual braids. This construction gives a new generating set for the virtual pure braid group $VP_n$. Consequently we describe $VP_4$ as HNN-extension. As an application to classical braids, we find a new presentation of the Artin pure braid group $P_4$ in terms of the cabled generators.
Let $Γ$ be a Coxeter graph, let $(W,S)$ be its associated Coxeter system, and let $(A,Σ$) be its associated Artin-Tits system. We regard $W$ as a reflection group acting on a real vector space $V$. Let $I$ be the Tits cone, and let $E_Γ$ be the complement in $I +iV$ of the reflecting hyperplanes. Recall that Charney, Davis, and Salvetti have constructed a simplicial complex $Ω(Γ)$ having the same homotopy type as $E_Γ$. We observe that, if $T \subset S$, then $Ω(Γ_T)$ naturally embeds into $Ω(Γ)$. We prove that this embedding admits a retraction $π_T: Ω(Γ) \to Ω(Γ_T)$, and we deduce several to…
We first show that the braid group over a graph topologically containing no $Θ$-shape subgraph has a presentation related only by commutators. Then using discrete Morse theory and triple Massey products, we prove that a graph topologically contains none of four prescribed graphs if and only if its 4-braid groups is a right-angled Artin group.
We show that, in an Artin-Tits group of spherical type, the intersection of two parabolic subgroups is a parabolic subgroup. Moreover, we show that the set of parabolic subgroups forms a lattice with respect to inclusion. This extends to all Artin-Tits groups of spherical type a result that was previously known for braid groups. To obtain the above results, we show that every element in an Artin-Tits group of spherical type admits a unique minimal parabolic subgroup containing it. Also, the subgroup associated to an element coincides with the subgroup associated to any of its powers or roots. …
The braid group $B_{n}$, endowed with Artin's presentation, admits an antiautomorphism $B_{n} \to B_{n}$, such that $v \mapsto \bar{v}$ is defined by reading braids in reverse order (from right to left instead of left to right). We prove that the map $B_{n} \to B_{n}$, $v \mapsto v \bar{v}$ is injective. We also give some consequences arising due to this injectivity.
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.
An element in Artin's braid group B_n is said to be periodic if some power of it lies in the center of B_n. In this paper we prove that all previously known algorithms for solving the conjugacy search problem in B_n are exponential in the braid index n for the special case of periodic braids. We overcome this difficulty by putting to work several known isomorphisms between Garside structures in the braid group B_n and other Garside groups. This allows us to obtain a polynomial solution to the original problem in the spirit of the previously known algorithms. This paper is the third in a series…
In the paper we give a survey of rather new notions and results which generalize classical ones in the theory of braids. Among such notions are various inverse monoids of partial braids. We also observe presentations different from standard Artin presentation for generalizations of braids. Namely, we consider presentations with small number of generators, Sergiescu graph-presentations and Birman-Ko-Lee presentation. The work of V.V.Chaynikov on the word and conjugacy problems for the singular braid monoid in Birman-Ko-Lee generators is described as well.
In the present paper, we introduce $\mathbb{Z}_2$-braids and, more generally, $G$-braids for an arbitrary group $G$. They form a natural group-theoretic counterpart of $G$-knots, see \cite{reidmoves}. The underlying idea, used in the construction of these objects --- decoration of crossings with some additional information --- generalizes an important notion of {\it parity} introduced by the second author (see \cite{parity}) to different combinatorically--geometric theories, such as knot theory, braid theory and others. These objects act as natural enhancements of classical (Artin) braid group…
We prove that the conjugacy problem in right-angled Artin groups (RAAGs), as well as in a large and natural class of subgroups of RAAGs, can be solved in linear-time. This class of subgroups contains, for instance, all graph braid groups (i.e. fundamental groups of configuration spaces of points in graphs), many hyperbolic groups, and it coincides with the class of fundamental groups of ``special cube complexes'' studied independently by Haglund and Wise.
The minimal standardizer of a curve system on a punctured disk is the minimal braid that transforms it into a system formed only by round curves. We give an algorithm to compute it in a geometrical way. Then, we generalize this problem algebraically to parabolic subgroups of Artin-Tits groups of spherical type and we show that, to compute the minimal standardizer of a parabolic subgroup, it suffices to compute the $pn$-normal form of a particular central element.
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 present a new procedure to determine the growth function of a homogeneous Garside monoid, with respect to the finite generating set formed by the atoms. In particular, we present a formula for the growth function of each Artin--Tits monoid of spherical type (hence of each braid monoid) with respect to the standard generators, as the inverse of the determinant of a very simple matrix. Using this approach, we show that the exponential growth rates of the Artin--Tits monoids of type $A_n$ (positive braid monoids) tend to $3.233636\ldots$ as $n$ tends to infinity. This number is well-known, as …
There are well-known monomorphisms between the Artin groups of finite type $\arA_n$, $\arB_n=\arC_n$ and affine type $\tilde \arA_{n-1}$, $\tilde\arC_{n-1}$. The Artin group $A(\arA_n)$ is isomorphic to the $(n+1)$-strand braid group $B_{n+1}$, and the other three Artin groups are isomorphic to some subgroups of $B_{n+1}$. The inclusions between these subgroups yield monomorphisms $A(\arB_n)\to A(\arA_n)$, $A(\tilde \arA_{n-1})\to A(\arB_n)$ and $A(\tilde \arC_{n-1})\to A(\arB_n)$. There are another type of monomorphisms $A(\arB_d)\to A(\arA_{md-1})$, $A(\arB_d)\to A(\arB_{md})$ and $A(\arB_d)…
For every group genetic code with finite number of generating and at most with one defining relation we introduce the braid group of this genetic code. This construction includes the braid group of Euclidean plane, the braid groups of closed orientable surfaces, B type groups of Artin-Brieskorn, and allow us to study all these groups with common point of view. We present some results on the structure of the braid groups of genetic codes, describe normal form of words, torsion, and some results on widths of the verbal subgroups. Also we prove that Scott's system of defining relations for the br…
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.
We give a conjectural classification of virtually cocompactly cubulated Artin-Tits groups (i.e. having a finite index subgroup acting geometrically on a CAT(0) cube complex), which we prove for all Artin-Tits groups of spherical type, FC type or two-dimensional type. A particular case is that for $n \geq 4$, the $n$-strand braid group is not virtually cocompactly cubulated.
In this paper we give an algorithm for solving a main case of the conjugacy problem in the braid groups. We also prove that half-twists satisfy a special root property which allows us to reduce the solution for the conjugacy problem in half-twists into the free group. Using this algorithm one is able to check conjugacy of a given braid to one of E. Artin's generators in any power, and compute its root. Moreover, the braid element which conjugates a given half-twist to one of E. Artin's generators in any power can be restored. The result is applicable to calculations of braid monodromy of branc…
We prove that an Artin-Tits group of type $\tilde C$ is the group of fractions of a Garside monoid, analogous to the known dual monoids associated with Artin-Tits groups of spherical type and obtained by the "generated group" method. This answers, in this particular case, a general question on Artin-Tits groups, gives a new presentation of an Artin-Tits group of type $\tilde C$, and has consequences for the word problem, the computation of some centralizers or the triviality of the center. A key point of the proof is to show that this group is a group of fixed points in an Artin-Tits group of …
The twin group $T_n$ is a right angled Coxeter group generated by $n- 1$ involutions and having only far commutativity relations. These groups can be thought of as planar analogues of Artin braid groups. In this note, we study some properties of twin groups whose analogues are well-known for Artin braid groups. We give an algorithm for two twins to be equivalent under individual Markov moves. Further, we show that twin groups $T_n$ have $R_\infty$-property and are not co-Hopfian for $n \ge 3$.
We study those Artin groups which, modulo their centers, are finite index subgroups of the mapping class group of a sphere with at least 5 punctures. In particular, we show that any injective homomorphism between these groups is parameterized by a homeomorphism of a punctured sphere together with a map to the integers. We also give a generating set for the automorphism group of the pure braid group on at least 4 strands. The technique, following Ivanov, is to prove that every superinjective map of the complex of curves of a sphere with at least 5 punctures is induced by a homeomorphism.
