Braids and self-distributivity

Publication date 9 August 2000

Published in Progress in Mathematics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Artin's braid groups distinguished terms elementary embeddings embedding conjecture free LD-systems Laver tables left linear orders left self-distributive systems linear order of braids Polish algorithm positive braids well-orderings

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Ordered groups (06F15) Word problems (aspects of algebraic structures) (08A50) Free algebras (08B20) Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to group theory (20-02) Generators, relations, and presentations of groups (20F05) Word problems, other decision problems, connections with logic and automata (group-theoretic aspects) (20F10) Braid groups; Artin groups (20F36) Ordered groups (group-theoretic aspects) (20F60) Free semigroups, generators and relations, word problems (20M05) Sets with a single binary operation (groupoids) (20N02) Grammars and rewriting systems (68Q42)

Review text

From the author's preface: The aim of this book is to present recently discovered connections between Artin's braid groups and left self-distributive systems (also called LD-systems), which are sets equipped with a binary operation satisfying the identity \[ x(yz)=(xy)(xz).\tag{LD} \] Such connections appeared in set theory in the 1980s and led to the discovery in 1991 of a left linear order on the braid groups. The current text proposes a first synthesis of this area of research. Our exposition is self-contained, and there are no prerequisites. This leads us to establish a number of basic results, about braids, self-distributive algebras, and, to some extent, set theory. The text is divided into three parts, devoted to the braid order, to free LD-systems, and to general LD-systems, respectively. The parts are rather independent, and it is possible to begin with any of them. The aim of part A is to construct the linear order of braids and establish its main properties. In Chapter I, we give an introduction to braids, we present actions of braids on LD-systems, and the existence of a left self-distributive operation (exponentiation) on braids. In Chapter II, we develop a specific combinatorial method for studying groups and monoids with a presentation of a particular syntactic form. In Chapter III, we extend the action of braids on powers of LD-systems to more general LD-systems. We deduce the existence of a left invariant order on braids. In Chapter IV, we study the restriction of the braid order to positive braids. The main result is Laver's theorem that the restriction of the order to \(n\)-strand positive braids is a well-ordering. Part B is a general study of free LD-systems. The core of our study consists in investigating LD-equivalence of terms. In general, the equivalence class of a term is infinite. In Chapter V, we introduce free LD-systems. We prove the Comparison Property, and the existence of left invariant linear orders on free LD-systems. In Chapter VI, we construct families of distinguished terms so that every term is LD-equivalent to exactly one distinguished term. In Chapter VII, we introduce the monoid \(G_{\text{LD}}\) by considering partial operators acting on terms. We check that most of the results about free LD-systems can be deduced from LD-relations. In Chapter VIII, we define the group \(G_{\text{LD}}\) for which LD-relations yield a presentation. We give a purely syntactical proof of the fundamental result that left division in a free LD-system admits no cycle. In Chapter IX, we deepen our study of the group \(G_{\text{LD}}\) and of the associated positive monoid \(M_{\text{LD}}\). We prove partial results about the Polish Algorithm and the Embedding Conjecture. The Polish Algorithm is a natural syntactic method for deciding LD-equivalence of terms, and its termination is one of the open questions of the subject. The Embedding Conjecture claims that the monoid \(M_{\text{LD}}\) embeds in the group \(G_{\text{LD}}\). Part C contains further developments about LD-systems. We concentrated on some special families of LD-systems, in particular the Laver tables and the LD-systems of elementary embeddings. There is a dictionary between elementary embeddings in set theory and values in the Laver tables. The Laver-Steel theorem, a deep well foundedness result about elementary embeddings, translates into the result that the number of values occurring in the first row of the \(n\)-th Laver table tends to infinity with \(n\). No direct proof of this combinatorial statement has been discovered so far. The methods used here are mostly algebraic and combinatorial in nature. The emphasis is put on words, rather than on the elements of a monoid, a group, or an LD-system they present. Exercises appear at the end of most sections, usually with the aim of mentioning in a short way further results. Historical remarks and proper credits are given in the notes at the end of each chapter. This book is a Ferron Sunyer i Balaguer Award winning monograph.

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