Braids: A Survey

This article is about Artin's braid group and its role in knot theory. We set ourselves two goals: (i) to provide enough of the essential background so that our review would be accessible to graduate students, and (ii) to focus on those parts of the subject in which major progress was made, or interesting new proofs of known results were discovered, during the past 20 years. A central theme that we try to develop is to show ways in which structure first discovered in the braid groups generalizes to structure in Garside groups, Artin groups and surface mapping class groups. However, the literature is extensive, and for reasons of space our coverage necessarily omits many very interesting developments. Open problems are noted and so-labelled, as we encounter them.Comment: Final version, revised to take account of the comments of readers. A review article, to appear in the Handbook of Knot Theory, edited by W. Menasco and M. Thistlethwaite. 91 pages, 24 figure

Strong contraction of the representations of the three dimensional Lie algebras

For any Inonu-Wigner contraction of a three dimensional Lie algebra we construct the corresponding contractions of representations. Our method is quite canonical in the sense that in all cases we deal with realizations of the representations on some spaces of functions; we contract the differential operators on those spaces along with the representation spaces themselves by taking certain pointwise limit of functions. We call such contractions strong contractions. We show that this pointwise limit gives rise to a direct limit space. Many of these contractions are new and in other examples we give a different proof

Abelian covers of surfaces and the homology of the level L mapping class group

We calculate the first homology group of the mapping class group with coefficients in the first rational homology group of the universal abelian $\Z / L \Z$-cover of the surface. If the surface has one marked point, then the answer is \Q^{\tau(L)}, where $\tau(L)$ is the number of positive divisors of $L$. If the surface instead has one boundary component, then the answer is \Q. We also perform the same calculation for the level $L$ subgroup of the mapping class group. Set $H_L = H_1(\Sigma_g;\Z/L\Z)$. If the surface has one marked point, then the answer is \Q[H_L], the rational group ring of $H_L$. If the surface instead has one boundary component, then the answer is \Q.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures; numerous corrections and simplifications; to appear in J. Topol. Ana

Hyperspherical theory of anisotropic exciton

A new approach to the theory of anisotropic exciton based on Fock transformation, i.e., on a stereographic projection of the momentum to the unit 4-dimensional (4D) sphere, is developed. Hyperspherical functions are used as a basis of the perturbation theory. The binding energies, wave functions and oscillator strengths of elongated as well as flattened excitons are obtained numerically. It is shown that with an increase of the anisotropy degree the oscillator strengths are markedly redistributed between optically active and formerly inactive states, making the latter optically active. An approximate analytical solution of the anisotropic exciton problem taking into account the angular momentum conserving terms is obtained. This solution gives the binding energies of moderately anisotropic exciton with a good accuracy and provides a useful qualitative description of the energy level evolution.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure

The many faces of Lorenz knots

One of the greatest pleasures in doing mathematics (and one of the surest signs of being onto something really relevant) is discovering that two apparently completely unrelated objects actually are one and the same thing. This is what Étienne Ghys, of the École Normale Superieure de Lyon, did a few years ago (see [1] for the technical details), showing that the class of Lorenz knots, pertaining to the theory of chaotic dynamical systems and ordinary differential equations, and the class of modular knots, pertaining to the theory of 2-dimensional lattices and to number theory, coincide. In this short note we shall try to explain what Lorenz and modular knots are, and to give a hint of why they are the same. See also [2] for a more detailed but still accessible presentation, containing the beautiful pictures and animations prepared by Jos Leys [3], a digital artist, to illustrate Ghys’ results

Invariants of 2+1 Quantum Gravity

In [1,2] we established and discussed the algebra of observables for 2+1 gravity at both the classical and quantum level. Here our treatment broadens and extends previous results to any genus $g$ with a systematic discussion of the centre of the algebra. The reduction of the number of independent observables to $6g-6 (g > 1)$ is treated in detail with a precise classification for $g = 1$ and $g = 2$.Comment: 10 pages, plain TEX, no figures, DFTT 46/9

On the Lieb-Thirring constants L_gamma,1 for gamma geq 1/2

Let $E_i(H)$ denote the negative eigenvalues of the one-dimensional Schr\"odinger operator $Hu:=-u^{\prime\prime}-Vu,\ V\geq 0,$ on $L_2({\Bbb R})$. We prove the inequality \sum_i|E_i(H)|^\gamma\leq L_{\gamma,1}\int_{\Bbb R} V^{\gamma+1/2}(x)dx, (1) for the "limit" case $\gamma=1/2.$ This will imply improved estimates for the best constants $L_{\gamma,1}$ in (1), as $1/2<\gamma<3/2.Comment: AMS-LATEX, 15 page

Every mapping class group is generated by 6 involutions

Let Mod_{g,b} denote the mapping class group of a surface of genus g with b punctures. Feng Luo asked in a recent preprint if there is a universal upper bound, independent of genus, for the number of torsion elements needed to generate Mod_{g,b}. We answer Luo's question by proving that 3 torsion elements suffice to generate Mod_{g,0}. We also prove the more delicate result that there is an upper bound, independent of genus, not only for the number of torsion elements needed to generate Mod_{g,b} but also for the order of those elements. In particular, our main result is that 6 involutions (i.e. orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms of order two) suffice to generate Mod_{g,b} for every genus g >= 3, b = 0, and g >= 4, b = 1.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures; slightly improved main result; minor revisions. to appear in J. Al

Moment operators of the Cartesian margins of the phase space observables

The theory of operator integrals is used to determine the moment operators of the Cartesian margins of the phase space observables generated by the mixtures of the number states. The moments of the $x$-margin are polynomials of the position operator and those of the $y$-margin are polynomials of the momentum operator.Comment: 14 page