The braid group has recently attracted much attention. This is primarily based upon the discovery of its usage in various cryptosystems [AAG],[KLCHKP]. One major focus of current research has been in solving decision problems in braid groups and analyzing their complexity. Among the decision problems which have been investigated are: the word problem, the conjugacy problem and the conjugacy search problem. One decision problem which has not been thoroughly pursued is the generalized word problem. It can be shown that this problem is, in general, unsolvable for braid groups of index greater then or equal to 5. However, we will show that for the special case of cyclic subgroups, this problem is, in almost all cases, solvable. We will design an algorithm, implement it on a multitape Turing machine, and analyze its complexity.
It has been conjectured that in a braid group, or more generally in a Garside group, applying any sequence of monotone equivalences and word reversings can increase the length of a word by at most a linear factor depending on the group presentation only. We give a counter-example to this conjecture, but, on the other hand, we establish length upper bounds for the case when only right reversing is involved. We also state a new conjecture which would, like the above one, imply that the space complexity of the handle reduction algorithm is linear.
A result by Dehornoy (1992) says that every nontrivial braid admits a sigma-definite word representative, defined as a braid word in which the generator sigma_i with maximal index i appears with exponents that are all positive, or all negative. This is the ground result for ordering braids. In this paper, we enhance this result and prove that every braid admits a sigma-definite word representative that, in addition, is quasi-geodesic. This establishes a longstanding conjecture. Our proof uses the dual braid monoid and a new normal form called the rotating normal form.
In this paper, we obtain Groebner-Shirshov (non-commutative Gröbner) bases for the braid groups in the Birman-Ko-Lee generators enriched by new ``Garside word" $δ$. It gives a new algorithm for getting the Birman-Ko-Lee Normal Form in the braid groups, and thus a new algorithm for solving the word problem in these groups.
We describe the most efficient solutions to the word problem of Artin's braid group known so far, i.e., in other words, the most efficient solutions to the braid isotopy problem, including the Dynnikov method, which could be especially suitable for cryptographical applications. Most results appear in literature; however, some results about the greedy normal form and the symmetric normal form and their connection with grid diagrams may have never been stated explicitly.
We give a solution to the word problem for the singular braid monoid SB_n. The complexity of the algorithm is quadratic in the product of the word length and the number of the singular generators in the word. Furthermore we algebraically reprove a result of Fenn, Keyman and Rourke that the monoid embeds into a group and we compute the cohomological dimension of this group.
This paper proposes for every $n$, linear time reductions of the word and conjugacy problems on the braid groups $B_n$ to the corresponding problems on the braid monoids $B_n^+$ and moreover only using positive words representations.
The word problem of a group is a very important question. The word problem in the braid group is of particular interest for topologists, algebraists and geometers. In previouse article we have looked at the braid group from a topological point of view, and thus using a new computerized representation of some elements of the fundamental group we gave a solution for its word problem. In this paper we will give an algorithm that will make it possible to transform the new presentation into a syntactic presentation. This will make it possible to computerize the group operation to sets of elements o…
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…
We study braid diagrams with a minimal number of crossings. Such braid diagrams correspond to geodesic words for the braid groups with standard Artin generators. We prove that a diagram of a homogeneous braid is minimal if and only if it is homogeneous. We conjecture that monoids of homogeneous braids are Artin-Tits monoids and prove that monoids of alternating braids are right-angled Artin monoids. Using this, we give a lower bound on the growth rate of the braid groups.
We describe a new algorithm which for each braid returns a quasi-geodesic sigma-definite word representative, defined as a braid word in which the generator sigma_i with maximal index i appears either only positively or only negatively.
We describe an algorithm to identify a minimal set of "braid relations" which span and preserve all sets of involution words for twisted Coxeter systems of finite or affine type. We classify the cases in which adding the smallest possible set of "half-braid" relations to the ordinary braid relations produces a spanning set: in the untwisted case, this occurs for the Coxeter systems which are finite with rank two or type $A_n$, or affine with rank three or type $\tilde A_n$. These results generalize recent work of Hu and Zhang on the finite classical cases.
In this paper, we establish a bijection between the infinite reduced words of an affine Weyl group and certain biclosed sets of its positive system and determine all finitely generated biclosed sets in the positive system of an affine Weyl group. Using these results, we show first that the biclosed sets in the standard positive system of rank 3 affine Weyl groups when ordered by inclusion form a complete algebraic ortholattice and secondly that the (generalized) braid graphs of those Coxeter groups are connected, which can be thought of as an infinite version of Tit's solution to the word prob…
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…
Braided Thompson's groups are finitely presented groups introduced by Brin and Dehornoy which contain the ordinary braid groups $B_n$, the finitary braid group $B_{\infty}$ and Thompson's group $F$ as subgroups. We describe some of the metric properties of braided Thompson's groups and give upper and lower bounds for word length in terms of the number of strands and the number of crossings in the diagrams used to represent elements.
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 reducible 4-braid which is as short as possible within its conjugacy class (short in the sense of Garside), reducing curves surrounding three punctures must be round or almost round.
We show that for any given n, there exists a sequence of words a_k in the generators sigma_1, ... sigma_{n-1} of the braid group B_n, representing the identity element of B_n, such that the number of braid relations of the form sigma_i sigma_{i+1} sigma_i = sigma_{i+1} sigma_i sigma_{i+1} needed to pass from a_k to the empty word is quadratic with respect to the length of a_k.
We give a new presentation of the braid group $B$ of the complex reflection group $G(e,e,r)$ which is positive and homogeneous, and for which the generators map to reflections in the corresponding complex reflection group. We show that this presentation gives rise to a Garside structure for $B$ with Garside element a kind of generalised Coxeter element, and hence obtain solutions to the word and conjugacy problems for $B$.
We generalize presentations of the fundamental group of discriminant complements and arrive at a class of presentations associated naturally with words in the free monoid of the alphabet $σ_1,\dots,σ_{n-1}$. Our study addresses invariance properties of these presentations and the presented groups under various operations on the words. In particular we prove that the group does only depend on the corresponding element in the positive braid monoid, and under mild hypotheses only on its conjugacy class in the braid group.
A conjecture of Dehornoy claims that, given a presentation of an Artin-Tits group, every word that represents the identity can be transformed into the trivial word using the braid relations, together with certain rules (between pairs of words that are not both positive) that can be derived directly from the braid relations, as well as free reduction, but without introducing trivial factors $ss^{-1} $ or $s^{-1} s$. This conjecture is known to be true for Artin-Tits groups of spherical type or of FC type. We prove the conjecture for Artin--Tits groups of sufficiently large type.
Braid combing is a procedure defined by Emil Artin to solve the word problem in braid groups for the first time. It is well-known to have exponential complexity. In this paper, we use the theory of straight line programs to give a polynomial algorithm which performs braid combing. This procedure can be applied to braids on surfaces, providing the first algorithm (to our knowledge) which solves the word problem for braid groups on surfaces with boundary in polynomial time and space. In the case of surfaces without boundary, braid combing needs to use a section from the fundamental group of the …
In this paper we give new presentations of the braid groups and the pure braid groups of a closed surface. We also give an algorithm to solve the word problem in these groups, using the given presentations.
We define pseudo-Garside groups and prove a theorem about them parallel to Garside's result on the word problem for the usual braid groups. The main novelty is that the set of simple elements can be infinite. We introduce a group B=B(Z^n) which we call the braid group of Z^n, and which bears some vague resemblance to mapping class groups. It is to GL(n,Z) what the braid group is to the symmetric group S_n. We prove that B is a pseudo-Garside group. We give a small presentation for B(Z^n) assuming one for B(Z^3) is given.
We ask if any finite type generalized braid group is a subgroup of some classical Artin braid group. We define a natural map from a given finite type generalized braid group to a classical braid group and ask if this map is an injective homomorphism. We prove that this map is a homomorphism for the braid groups of type A_n, B_n, I_2(k). The injectivity question of this homomorphism (in these particular cases) is not yet settled. If this map is an injective homomorphism then several results will follow. For example it will follow that the Whitehead group, projective class group and the lower K-…
A large class of positive finite presentations of the braid groups is found and studied. It is shown that no presentations but known exceptions in this class have the property that equivalent braid words are also equivalent under positive relations.
In the present paper, we construct a variant of the Burau representation of two generalizations of the classical braid group. For the Gassner representation, we propose an iterative procedure to find and generalize the extension of this representation.
We study the structure of the virtual braid group. It is shown that the virtual braid group is a semi--direct product of the virtual pure braid group and the symmetric group. Also, it is shown that the virtual pure braid group is a semi--direct product of free groups. From these results we obtain a normal form of words in the virtual braid group. We introduce the concept of a universal braid group. This group contains the classical braid group and has as its quotient groups the singular braid group, virtual braid group, welded braid group, and classical braid group.
We begin with a review of the notion of a braid group. We then discuss some known solutions to decision problems in braid groups. We then move on to proving new results in braid group algorithmics. We offer a quick solution to the generalized word problem in braid groups, in the special case of cyclic subgroups. We illustrate this solution and its complexity using a multitape Turing machine. We then turn to a discussion of decision problems in cyclic amalgamations of groups. Again using a multitape Turing machine, we solve the word problem for the cyclic amalgamation of two braid groups. We an…
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.
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 define geodesic normal forms for the general series of complex reflection groups G(e,e,n). This requires the elaboration of a combinatorial technique in order to explicitly determine minimal word representatives of the elements of G(e,e,n) over the generating set of the presentation of Corran-Picantin. Using these geodesic normal forms, we construct intervals in G(e,e,n) that are lattices. This gives rise to interval Garside groups. We determine which of these groups are isomorphic to the complex braid group B(e,e,n) and get a complete classification. For the other Garside groups that appea…
We study the geodesic growth series of the braid group on three strands, B_3 := <a,b|aba = bab>. We show that the set of geodesics of B_3 with respect to the generating set S := {a,b,a^-1,b^-1} is a regular language, and we provide an explicit computation of the geodesic growth series with respect to this set of generators. In the process, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for a freely reduced word w in S^* to be geodesic in B_3 with respect to S. Also, we show that the translation length with respect to S of any element in B_3 is an integer.
We complete the computation of the integral homology of the generalized braid group $B$ associated to an arbitrary irreducible complex reflection group $W$ of exceptional type. In order to do this we explicitely computed the recursively-defined differential of a resolution of $\mathbf{Z}$ as a $\mathbf{Z} B$-module, using parallel computing. We also deduce from this general computation the rational homology of the Milnor fiber of the singularity attached to most of these reflection groups.
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.
For every finite Coxeter group $Γ$, each positive braids in the corresponding braid group admits a unique decomposition as a finite sequence of elements of $Γ$, the so-called Garside-normal form.The study of the associated adjacency matrix $Adj(Γ)$ allows to count the number of Garside-normal form of a given length.In this paper we prove that the characteristic polynomial of $Adj(B_n)$ divides the one of $Adj(B_{n+1})$. The key point is the use of a Hopf algebra based on signed permutations. A similar result was already known for the type $A$. We observe that this does not hold for type $D$. T…
In this paper, we shall introduce two monoids. One is called a PM-monoid which contains the symmetric group, the other is called a braid PM-monoid which contains the braid group. We shall develop the theory of PM-monoids and that of braid PM-monoids. The PM-monoids is obtained in the context of the compactification of projective linear group defined by Mutsumi Saito. The structure of PM-monoids is described in terms of matched pairs. We can define braid PM-monoid using a presentation for the PM-monoid. As main results, we show that braid PM-monoids are described by geometric braids and we find…
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 study Artin-Tits braid groups $\mathbb{B}_W$ of type ADE via the action of $\mathbb{B}_W$ on the homotopy category $\mathcal{K}$ of graded projective zigzag modules (which categorifies the action of the Weyl group $W$ on the root lattice). Following Brav-Thomas, we define a metric on $\mathbb{B}_W$ induced by the canonical $t$-structure on $\mathcal{K}$, and prove that this metric on $\mathbb{B}_W$ agrees with the word-length metric in the canonical generators of the standard positive monoid $\mathbb{B}_W^+$ of the braid group. We also define, for each choice of a Coxeter element $c$ in $W$…
We prove that the pure braid groups on closed, orientable surfaces are bi-orderable, and that the pure braid groups on closed, non-orientable surfaces have generalized torsion, thus they are not bi-orderable.
We give formulae for the first homology of the $n$-braid group and the pure 2-braid group over a finite graph in terms of graph theoretic invariants. As immediate consequences, a graph is planar if and only if the first homology of the $n$-braid group over the graph is torsion-free and the conjectures about the first homology of the pure 2-braid groups over graphs in \cite{FH} can be verified. We discover more characteristics of graph braid groups: the $n$-braid group over a planar graph and the pure 2-braid group over any graph have a presentation whose relators are words of commutators, and …
In the last decade, a number of public key cryptosystems based on com- binatorial group theoretic problems in braid groups have been proposed. We survey these cryptosystems and some known attacks on them. This survey includes: Basic facts on braid groups and on the Garside normal form of its elements, some known algorithms for solving the word problem in the braid group, the major public-key cryptosystems based on the braid group, and some of the known attacks on these cryptosystems. We conclude with a discussion of future directions (which includes also a description of cryptosystems which ar…
These are Lecture Notes of a course given by the author at the French-Spanish School "Tresses in Pau", held in Pau (France) in October 2009. It is basically an introduction to distinct approaches and techniques that can be used to show results in braid groups. Using these techniques we provide several proofs of well known results in braid groups, namely the correctness of Artin's presentation, that the braid group is torsion free, or that its center is generated by the full twist. We also recall some solutions of the word and conjugacy problems, and that roots of a braid are always conjugate. …
We propose an algorithm for deciding whether a given braid is pseudo-Anosov, reducible, or periodic. The algorithm is based on Garside's weighted decomposition and is polynomial-time in the word-length of an input braid. Moreover, a reduction system of circles can be found completely if the input is a certain type of reducible braids.
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.
A toric braid is a braid whose closure is a torus link in $\mathbb{R}^3$. Manturov generalized toric braids that is called quasitoric braids and showed that the subset of quasitoric braids in the classical braid group is a subgroup of the braid group. We call this subgroup the quasitoric braid group. In this paper, we give two minimal generating sets for the quasitoric braid group and determine its abelianization. The minimalities of these two generating sets are obtained from a lower bound by the number of generators for the abelianization.
This article extends the works of Gonçalves, Guaschi, Ocampo [GGO] and Marin [MAR2] on finite subgroups of the quotients of generalized braid groups by the derived subgroup of their pure braid group. We get explicit criteria for subgroups of the (complex) reflection group to lift to subgroups of this quotient. In the specific case of the classical braid group, this enables us to describe all its finite subgroups : we show that every odd-order finite group can be embedded in it, when the number of strands goes to infinity. We also determine a complete list of the irreducible reflection groups f…
Consider the ring R:=\Q[τ,τ^{-1}] of Laurent polynomials in the variable τ. The Artin's Pure Braid Groups (or Generalized Pure Braid Groups) act over R, where the action of every standard generator is the multiplication by τ. In this paper we consider the cohomology of these groups with coefficients in the module R (it is well known that such cohomology is strictly related to the untwisted integral cohomology of the Milnor fibration naturally associated to the reflection arrangement). We compute this cohomology for the cases I_2(m), H_3, H_4, F_4 and A_n with 1<n<7.
The singular braids with $n$ strands, $n \geq 3$, were introduced independently by Baez and Birman. It is known that the monoid formed by the singular braids is embedded in a group that is known as singular braid group, denoted by $SG_n$. There has been another generalization of braid groups, denoted by $GVB_n$, $n \geq 3$, which was introduced by Fang as a group of symmetries behind quantum quasi-shuffle structures. The group $GVB_n$ simultaneously generalizes the classical braid group, as well as the virtual braid group on $n$ strands. We investigate the commutator subgroups $SG_n'$ and $GVB…
