Braids via term rewriting (Q2422032)

In this paper, the authors introduce a presentation of the Artin braid groups different from the classical Artin presentation. This presentation is called \emph{colored braids presentation}, it is finite, but with far more generators than the classical one. A word representing a braid in this presentation is called a \emph{braid code}. An \emph{elementary diagram} is defined to describe graphically the equivalence of positive braids with the colored braids presentation. This diagram is reminiscent of the van-Kampen diagram for monoids, and of a reversing diagram used in the context of Garside groups. In the theory of term rewriting, these elementary diagrams are familiar for confluence proofs. Confluence is obtained when tiling an initial pair of finite, divergent reduction sequences, leads to a completed reduction diagram with converging sides that are tantamount to confluence. Using these elementary diagrams, the authors prove several results related to the word problem, confluence property, projection equivalence, and the congruence property.