Invariants And Pictures: Low-dimensional Topology And Combinatorial Group Theory. Vassily Olegovich Manturov
along L′, after this goes vertically downwards until (i, 0) and finally, horizontally until (j, 0). Obviously, W(L′) = W. It is easy to see that for different representatives L of W we obtain the same L′. Besides, for L1 = aiL2, the curves
Thus, for a fixed permutation s, admissible systems of curves can be uniquely encoded by n-systems, which completes the proof of the proposition.
Now, we see that this invariant is a quite simple object: elements of Ei can be easily compared.
Let us describe the algebraic construction of the invariant f in more detail.
Let β be a braid word, written as a product of generators
We are going to construct the n-system step-by-step while writing the word β. First, let us write n empty words (in the alphabet a1, . . . , an). Let the first letter of β be σj. Then all words except for the word ej+1 should stay the same (i.e., empty), and the word ej+1 becomes
Example 2.1. For the trivial braid written as
A priori these words may be non-trivial; they must only represent trivial residue classes, say,
However, it is not the case.
Proposition 2.2. For the trivial braid, the algebraic algorithm described above gives trivial words.
Proof. Indeed, the algebraic number of occurrences of ai in the word ei equals zero. This can be easily proved by induction on the number of crossings. In the initial position all words are trivial. The induction step is obvious. Thus, the final word ei equals
From this approach, one can easily obtain the well known invariant (action) as follows. Instead of a set of n words e1, . . . , en, one can consider the words
Definition 2.14. This action is called the Hurwitz action of the braid group BRn on the free group
2.4Virtual braids. Inclusion of classical braids into virtual braids
Just as classical knots can be obtained as closures of classical braids, virtual knots can be similarly obtained by closing virtual braids. Virtual braids were suggested by V. V. Vershinin, [Vershinin, 2001].
2.4.1Definitions of virtual braids
Virtual braids have a purely combinatorial definition. Namely, one takes virtual braid diagrams and factorises them by virtual Reidemeister moves (all moves with the exception of the first classical and the virtual moves; the latter moves do not occur).
Definition 2.15. A virtual braid diagram on n strands is a graph lying in [1, n] × [0, 1] ⊂
2 with vertices of valency one (there should be exactly 2n such vertices with coordinates (i, 0) and (i, 1) for i = 1, . . . , n) and a finite number of vertices of valency four. The graph is a union of n smooth curves without horizontal tangent lines connecting a point on the line {y = 1} with those on the line {y = 0}; their intersection makes crossings (four-valent vertices). Each crossing should be either endowed with a structure of over-or undercrossing (as in the case of classical braids) or marked as a virtual one (by encircling it).Definition 2.16. A virtual braid is an equivalence class of virtual braid diagrams by planar isotopies and all virtual Reidemeister moves (see Figs. 3.2 and 3.13) except the first classical move and the first virtual move.
A virtual braid diagram is called regular if any two different crossings have different ordinates.
Remark 2.1. We shall also treat braid words and braids familiarly, saying, e.g. “a strand of a braid word” and meaning “a strand of the corresponding braid”.
Let us describe the construction of the word by a given regular virtual braid diagram as follows. Let us walk along the axis Oy from the point (0, 1) to the point (0, 0) and watch all those levels z = t ∈ [0, 1] having crossings. Each such crossing permutes strands #i and #(i + 1) for some i = 1, . . . , n − 1. If the crossing is virtual, then we write the letter ζi, if not, we write σi if overcrossing is the “northeast-southwest” strand, and