Semi-adequate closed braids and volume (Q896815)

The recent work of \textit{D. Futer} et al. [Commun. Anal. Geom. 23, No. 5, 993--1030 (2015; Zbl 1339.57009)] relates under some assumptions the hyperbolic volume of link complements to the combinatorics of suitable link diagrams. The paper under review applies this to estimate the volume of certain \(n\)-braids, where the braids have to satisfy some assumptions explicitly stated in Lemma 2.1. Under these assumptions the author estimates the hyperbolic volume against bounds involving the number of positive and negative twist regions, the number of braid strings and the number of non-essential wandering state circles. For 3-braids satisfying his assumptions he obtains linear bounds for the volume in terms of a parameter \(s\) coming from the Schreier normal form of the braid. (According to Schreier every 3-braid can be written in the form \((\sigma_1\sigma_2)^{3k}\sigma_1^{p_1}\sigma_2^{-q_1}\dots\sigma_1^{p_s}\sigma_2^{-q_s}\), so \(s\) is related to the number of factors.) The estimate obtained in this case is \(v_8(s-1)\leq\mathrm{Vol}(S^3\setminus K)<4v_8s\), with \(v_8\) the volume of a regular ideal octahedron in hyperbolic \(3\)-space.