Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T19:04:59.457Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A foliated disk whose boundary is Morton's irreducible 4-braid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2000

GRETCHEN WRIGHT
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Bronx Community College of the City University of New York, Bronx, NY 10453, U.S.A.

Abstract

From the viewpoint of Birman and Menasco, a particular type of singular foliation on a surface with boundary induces an embedding of the surface in 3-space, such that the boundary of the surface is braided relative to the z-axis; hence the foliation determines a conjugacy class in the braid group. Birman and Hirsch describe an explicit algorithm to find a braid word representing this conjugacy class, given the foliation. A braid word β ∈ Bn is said to be irreducible if it is not conjugate to a braid of the form bσ±1n−1, with bBn−1. We exhibit a foliation of a disk and show that the corresponding braid word is an irreducible element of B4. We give an explicit geometric description of the embedding induced by the foliation and describe a particularly nice form of symmetry possessed by this example.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
The Cambridge Philosophical Society 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)