A presentation for Hilden's subgroup of the braid group (Q1000639)

Let \(H^3\) denote the closed upper half-space of \(\mathbb R^3\), let \(a_1, a_2,\dots ,a_n\subset H^3\) be \(n\) pairwise disjoint properly embedded unknotted arcs and let \(a_*=a_1\cup\ldots\cup a_n\). Viewing the braid group as the mapping class group of the punctured disc, if this disc is included in \(\delta H^3\) with \(\delta a_*\) as the punctures, one can define Hilden's group \(H_{2n}\) to be the subgroup of \(B_{2n}\) consisting of all mapping classes that can be extended to \(H^3\backslash a_*\). A presentation is calculated for \(H_{2n}\) using the action of this group on a simply-connected cellular complex. The presentation is used to calculate a presentation with generators similar to those found by Hilden.