On Cohen braids. (Q2514580)

Brunnian braids have been studied since long time ago. The paper under review defines and studies a family of braids called Cohen braids. They are a natural generalization of the Brunnian braids and are in the same spirit as the Cohen groups. Without being precise a braid on \(n\) strands is called a Cohen braid if the braids obtained after removal of one strand, for every strand, they are all the same braid \(\alpha\) (not necessarily trivial) on \(n-1\) strands. It is not clear for which values of \(\alpha\) the system of equations admits a solution. The main result of the paper is: Theorem 1.1. Let \(M\) be any connected 2-manifold such that \(M\neq S^2\) and \(M\neq RP^2\), and let \(\alpha\in B_{n-1}(M)\). Then the system of equations \(d_1(\beta)=\cdots=d_n(\beta)=\alpha\) for \(n\)-strand braids \(\beta\) has a solution if and only if \(\alpha\) satisfies the condition \(d_1(\alpha)=\cdots=d_{n-1}(\alpha)\). The authors also describe a set of generators for the Cohen group on \(n\)-strands of the disk. Then calculation of the Cohen braids on \(n\)-strands, for small value of \(n\) is provided in the case when the surface is \(S^2\) and it is \(RP^2\). Finally at the end a generalization of the Cohen braids is defined and some open questions are presented.