Since the discovery that Artin's braid groups enjoy a left-invariant linear ordering, several different approaches have been used to understand this phenomenon. This text provides an account of those approaches, involving varied objects & domains as combinatorial group theory, self-distributive algebra & finite combinatorics.

This book is an indispensable guide for anyone seeking to familarize themselves with research in braid groups, configuration spaces and their applications. Starting at the beginning, and assuming only basic topology and group theory, the volume's noted expositors take the reader through the fundamental theory and on to current research and applications in fields as varied as astrophysics, cryptography and robotics. As leading researchers themselves, the authors write enthusiastically about their topics, and include many striking illustrations. The chapters have their origins in tutorials given at a Summer School on Braids, at the National University of Singapore's Institute for Mathematical Sciences in June 2007, to an audience of more than thirty international graduate students.

This is the award-winning monograph of the Sunyer i Balaguer Prize 1999. The book presents recently discovered connections between Artin’s braid groups and left self-distributive systems, which are sets equipped with a binary operation satisfying the identity x(yz) = (xy)(xz). Although not a comprehensive course, the exposition is self-contained, and many basic results are established. In particular, the first chapters include a thorough algebraic study of Artin’s braid groups.

This book deals with the connections between topology and ordered groups. It begins with a self-contained introduction to orderable groups and from there explores the interactions between orderability and objects in low-dimensional topology, such as knot theory, braid groups, and 3-manifolds, as well as groups of homeomorphisms and other topological structures. The book also addresses recent applications of orderability in the studies of codimension-one foliations and Heegaard-Floer homology. The use of topological methods in proving algebraic results is another feature of the book. The book was written to serve both as a textbook for graduate students, containing many exercises, and as a reference for researchers in topology, algebra, and dynamical systems. A basic background in group theory and topology is the only prerequisite for the reader.

Everyone knows what braids are, whether they be made of hair, knitting wool, or electrical cables. However, it is not so evident that we can construct a theory about them, i.e. to elaborate a coherent and mathematically interesting corpus of results concerning them. This book demonstrates that there is a resoundingly positive response to this question: braids are fascinating objects, with a variety of rich mathematical properties and potential applications. A special emphasis is placed on the algorithmic aspects and on what can be called the 'calculus of braids', in particular the problem of isotopy. Prerequisites are kept to a minimum, with most results being established from scratch. An appendix at the end of each chapter gives a detailed introduction to the more advanced notions required, including monoids and group presentations. Also included is a range of carefully selected exercises to help the reader test their knowledge, with solutions available.

More recently, Khovanov introduced link homology as a generalization of the Jones polynomial to homology of chain complexes and Ozsvath and Szabo developed Heegaard-Floer homology, that lifts the Alexander polynomial. These two significantly different theories are closely related and the dependencies are the object of intensive study. These ideas mark the beginning of a new era in knot theory that includes relationships with four-dimensional problems and the creation of new forms of algebraic topology relevant to knot theory. The theory of skein modules is an older development also having its roots in Jones discovery. Another significant and related development is the theory of virtual knots originated independently by Kauffman and by Goussarov Polyak and Viro in the '90s. All these topics and their relationships are the subject of the survey papers in this book.

Offers a self-contained introduction to braid foliation techniques, which is a theory developed to study knots, links and surfaces in general 3-manifolds and more specifically in contact 3-manifolds. With style and content accessible to beginning students interested in geometric topology, each chapter centres around a key theorem or theorems.