Minimal generating and normally generating sets for the braid and mapping class groups of \(\mathbb D^2\), \(\mathbb S^2\) and \(\mathbb RP^2\). (Q1955724)

The authors determine the minimal cardinality of generating sets and normal generating sets for the groups of braids and pure braids over the sphere and real projective plane. They also establish the minimal cardinality of generating sets and normal generating sets consisting of torsion elements, when these exist. As an application the analogous result is obtained for the (pure) mapping class groups of the sphere and real projective plane, using the fact that they are natural quotients of the corresponding braid groups. The authors also prove that the braid groups of the sphere and of the real projective plane act trivially on the third homology group (with integer coefficients) of the universal covering of the associated configuration spaces. Finally, the authors compute the number of conjugacy classes of pure braids of order 4 inside the group of braids over the real projective space.