Videos

Bi-ordering link complements via braids

Presenter
July 15, 2024
Abstract
Any link (or knot) group – the fundamental group of a link complement – is left-orderable. However, not many link groups are bi-orderable – that is, admit an order invariant under both left and right multiplication. It is not well understood which link groups are bi-orderable, nor is there is a conjectured topological characterization of links with bi-orderable link groups. I will discuss joint work in progress with Jonathan Johnson and Nancy Scherich to study this problem for braided links – braid closures together with their braid axis. Inspired by Kin-Rolfsen, we focus on braided link groups because algebraic properties of the braid group can be employed in this setting. In particular, I will discuss our implementation of an algorithm which, given a braided link group which is not bi-orderable, will return a definitive "no" and a proof in finite time. Using our program, we give a new infinite family of non-bi-orderable braided links.
Supplementary Materials