Concordance of certain 3-braids and Gauss diagrams (Q340748)

Let \(\sigma_1\) and \(\sigma_2\) be the standard Artin generators of the braid group on \(3\) strands. Let \(\beta =\sigma_1\sigma_2^{-1}\). In this short and straightforward paper, it is shown that whenever \(n\) is not divisible by \(3\), the closure of the braid \(\beta^n\) is algebraically slice when \(n\) is odd and is of order two in the algebraic concordance group if \(n\) is even. Note that if \(n\) is divisible by \(3\), the closure is a \(3\)-component link. The proof consists primarily of computing the Arf invariants of the knots obtained as closures of \(\beta^n\). The main tool used for this are Gauss diagrams of these closures.