On the quotient of the braid group by commutators of transversal half-twists and its group actions

Let $M$ be a closed surface, $q\geq 2$ and $n\geq 2$. In this paper, we analyze the Coxeter-type quotient group $B_n(M)(q)$ of the surface braid group $B_{n}(M)$ by the normal closure of the element $\sigma_1^q$, where $\sigma_1$ is the classic Artin generator of the Artin braid group $B_n$. Also, we study the Coxeter-type quotient groups obtained by taking the quotient of $B_n(M)$ by the commutator subgroup of the respective pure braid group $[P_n(M),P_n(M)]$ and adding the ...

This is an introduction to the braid groups, as presented in the summer school and workshop on braid groups at the National University of Singapore in June 2007.

We classify an action of the $n$-strand braid group on the free group of rank $n$ which is similar to the Artin representation in the sense that the $i$-th generator $\sigma_{i}$ of $B_{n}$ acts so that it fixes all free generators $x_{j}$ except $j = i,i+1$. We determine all such representations and discuss knot invariants coming from such representations.

In arXiv:0910.1727 we find certain finite homomorphic images of Artin braid group into appropriate symmetric groups, which a posteriori are extensions of the symmetric group on n letters by an abelian group. The main theorem of this paper characterizes completely the extensions of this type that are split.

This paper will appear in the Santa Cruz proceedings. An overview of the braid group techniques in the theory of algebraic surfaces, from Zariski to the latest results, is presented. An outline of the Van Kampen algorithm for computing fundamental groups of complements of curves and the modification of Moishezon-Teicher regarding branch curves of generic projections are given. The paper also contains a description of a quotient of the braid group, namely $\tilde B_n$ which pl...

We prove that the symmetric group $S_n$ is the smallest non-cyclic quotient of the braid group $B_n$ for $n=5,6$ and that the alternating group $A_n$ is the smallest non-trivial quotient of the commutator subgroup $B_n'$ for $n = 5,6,7,8$. We also give an improved lower bound on the order of any non-cyclic quotient of $B_n$.

This paper is a survey of some properties of the braid groups and related groups that lead to questions on mapping class groups.

In his initial paper on braids E.Artin gave a presentation with two generators for an arbitrary braid group. We give analogues of this Artin's presentation for various generalizations of braids.

We show that the smallest non-cyclic quotients of braid groups are symmetric groups, proving a conjecture of Margalit. Moreover we recover results of Artin and Lin about the classification of homomorphisms from braid groups on n strands to symmetric groups on k letters, where k is at most n. Unlike the original proofs, our method does not use the Bertrand-Chebyshev theorem, answering a question of Artin. Similarly for mapping class group of closed orientable surfaces, the sma...

Withdrawn and replaced by two related manuscripts: (1) "Stabilization in the braid groups I:MTWS", published in Geometry and Topology Volume 10 (2006), 413-540, arXiv:math.GT/0310279, and (2) "Stabilization in the braid groups II: Transversal simplicity of knots", Geometry and Topology Volume 10 (2006), to appear, arXiv:math,GT/0310280.