Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nr4z6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-26T07:15:55.488Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

There exist conjugate simple braids whose associated permutations are not strongly conjugate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2007

P. M. G. MANCHÓN*
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Mathematics, EUIT Industrial, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Ronda de Valencia 3, Madrid, 28012, Spain. email: pedro.gmanchon@upm.es

Abstract

If two permutations are strongly conjugate, then their corresponding positive permutation braids (also called simple braids) are conjugate. In this paper we exhibit two conjugate simple braids whose associated permutations are not strongly conjugate. In terms of the grey and black graphs with vertices in the ultra summit set defined in [1], this result can be reformulated by saying that there are ultra summit sets with simple braids (hence with canonical length k = 1) in which the grey graph is not connected. Birman, Gebhardt and González Meneses have given similar examples, but with k ≥ 2 [1]. Recall that the set of simple braids on n strings is a basis of the Hecke algebra Hn. If two simple braids on n strings are conjugate, the associated permutations are centrally conjugate, which means that the coefficients of any central element of Hn corresponding to these simple braids are equal. Working on topological dynamics, Hall and Carvalho [8] have discovered two braids on 12 strings (one and its reverse) which are not conjugate. Since one braid is the reverse of the other, their corresponding permutations are centrally conjugate. For n ≤ 6 we checked that central conjugacy implies conjugacy of the corresponding simple braids.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 2007

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.)

References

REFERENCES

[1]Birman, J., Gebhardt, V. and González–, J. Meneses. Conjugacy in Garside groups II: structure of the ultra summit set. Preprint arXiv math.GT/0606652 (2006), 1–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2]Dipper, R. and James, G.. Blocks and idempotents of Hecke algebras of general linear groups. Proc. London Math. Soc. (3) 54 (1987), 5782.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[3]Elrifai, E. A. and Morton, H. R.. Algorithms for positive braids. Quart. J. Math. Oxford 45 (1994), 479497.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[4]Franco, N. and González-Meneses, J.. The conjugacy problem for braid groups and Garside groups. J. Algebra 266, No. 1 (2003), 112132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[5]Gebhardt, V.. A new approach to the conjugacy problem in Garside groups. J. Algebra 292, No. 1 (2005), 282302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[6]Geck, M. and Pfeiffer, G.. Characters of finite Coxeter groups and Iwahori–Hecke algebras. London Math. Soc. Monogr. (N. S.) 21 (2000).Google Scholar
[7]Geck, M. and Pfeiffer, G.. On the irreducible characters of Hecke algebras. Adv. Math. 102 (1993), 7994.Google Scholar
[8]Hall, T. and Carvalho, A. de. Private communication (2006).Google Scholar
[9]Manchón, P. M. G.. A note on the centre of the Hecke algebra. Preprint (2006).Google Scholar
[10]Morton, H. R.. Skein theory and the Murphy operators. J. Knot Theory Ramifications Vol. 11, No. 4 (2002), 475492.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[11]Morton, H. R. and Hadji, R. J.. Conjugacy for positive permutation braids. Fund. Math. 188 (2005), 155166.Google Scholar