|
Organizers |
Braid rank and detecting quasipositivity of braids.
by
Mark Hughes
BYU
Abstract: We describe a new technique to recast geometric problems involving the 4-ball and ribbon genera of a link in terms of algebraic properties of a braid representative. These techniques make use of braided cobordisms, and require the study of certain shortest word problems in the braid group described by Rudolph. This leads to a new algebraic invariant of the knot. We will present an upper bound to the solution of this shortest word problem, and discuss the related problem of detecting quasipositive braids.
Date received: November 28, 2015
Copyright © 2015 by the author(s). The author(s) of this work and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Topology Atlas. Document # cblw-44.