On the complexity of braids.

DOI10.4171/JEMS/98MaRDI QIDQ2478601zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Bert Wiest, I. A. Dynnikov

Publication date 28 March 2008

Published in Journal of the European Mathematical Society (JEMS) (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0403177, http://www.ems-ph.org/journals/show_abstract.php?issn=1435-9855&vol=9&iss=4&rank=8

zbMATH Keywords

mapping class groupslaminationscurve diagramsgenerators and relationsArtin generatorstrain tracksArtin braid groupscomplexitieslengths of braids

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Generators, relations, and presentations of groups (20F05) Braid groups; Artin groups (20F36) Geometric group theory (20F65)

Abstract: We define a measure of "complexity" of a braid which is natural with respect to both an algebraic and a geometric point of view. Algebraically, we modify the standard notion of the length of a braid by introducing generators $Delt{a}_{ij}$, which are Garside-like half-twists involving strings $i$ through $j$, and by counting powered generators $Delt{a}_{ij}^k$ as $log(|k|+1)$ instead of simply $|k|$. The geometrical complexity is some natural measure of the amount of distortion of the $n$ times punctured disk caused by a homeomorphism. Our main result is that the two notions of complexity are comparable. This gives rise to a new combinatorial model for the Teichmueller space of an $n+1$ times punctured sphere. We also show how to recover a braid from its curve diagram in polynomial time. The key r^ole in the proofs is played by a technique introduced by Agol, Hass, and Thurston.

Recommendations

• Curve diagrams, laminations, and the geometric complexity of braids
• A new algorithm for solving the word problem in braid groups
• A Garside-theoretic approach to the reducibility problem in braid groups.
• How to read the length of a braid from its curve diagram.
• Fast algorithmic Nielsen-Thurston classification of four-strand braids.

Cited in

(22)

• Geometric intersection of curves on punctured disks
• Braid order, sets, and knots.
• On the minimal positive standardizer of a parabolic subgroup of an Artin-Tits group
• On computing the entropy of braids
• Quasi-isometrically embedded subgroups of braid and diffeomorphism groups
• A simple algorithm for finding short sigma-definite representatives.
• Tracing compressed curves in triangulated surfaces
• Finite-time braiding exponents
• Interval identification systems and plane sections of 3-periodic surfaces
• Curve diagrams, laminations, and the geometric complexity of braids
• Algorithms for contractibility of compressed curves on 3-manifold boundaries
• A Braided Version of Some Results of Skryabin
• Simplifying triangulations
• Circuit complexity of knot states in Chern-Simons theory
• Counting intersections of normal curves
• The relaxation normal form of braids is regular
• On connectedness of chaotic sections of some 3-periodic surfaces
• Every braid admits a short sigma-definite expression.
• How to read the length of a braid from its curve diagram.
• Braids, their Properties and Generalizations
• Integral laminations on nonorientable surfaces
• Counting components of an integral lamination

This page was built for publication: On the complexity of braids.

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q2478601)