Upper estimate of the cardinality of the set of knots generated by one- and two-dimensional braids (Q1567811)

The present paper is devoted to the statistical problem of determining the cardinality of the sets of knots generated by closed one- and two-dimensional braids. The main results are the following: (i) The cardinality \(\#\Omega^{(1)}(n, \mu)\) of the set of knots generated by one-dimensional braids of a given irreducible length \(\mu\) from the one-dimensional braid group \(B_{n+1}^{(1)}\) is bounded from above by \[ \#\Omega^{(1)}(n, \mu) < \biggl( {{32\pi^2}\over{\log^4 2}} \biggr) \biggl( {{2^n}\over{n^3}} \biggr)7^{\mu-1} \] in the limit as \(\mu \gg 1.\) (ii) The cardinality \(\#\Omega^{(2)}(n, \mu)\) of the set of knots generated by two-dimensional braids of a given irreducible length \(\mu\) from the two-dimensional braid group \(B_{n+1}^{(2)}\) is bounded from above by \[ \#\Omega^{(2)}(n, \mu) < {{32n^2}\over{\pi^2}} \biggl( {{2n}\over{\log n}} \biggr)^{\mu-1} \] in the limit as \(\mu \gg 1.\) In order to obtain these upper bounds, the authors give explicit expressions for the numbers of all non-equivalent words of primitive length \(\mu\) in the one- and two-dimensional locally free groups by using Vershik's normal-order representation [Usp. Mat. Nauk, No. 5, 57 (1999)].