No Arabic abstract
We study simple branched coverings of degree d of the 2- and 3- dimensional sphere branched over oriented links. We demonstrate how to use braid charts to develop embeddings of these into $S^k times D^2$ for $k=2,3 when $d=2,3$. This is an initial part of our study and represents the manuscript submitted to the RIMS workshop at Intelligence of Low Dimensional Topology.
The notion of a braid is generalized into two and three dimensions. Two-dimensional braids are described by braid monodromies or graphics called charts. In this paper we introduce the notion of curtains, and show that three-dimensional braids are described by braid monodromies or curtains.
We show that any 4-manifold admitting a $(g;k_1,k_2,0)$-trisection is an irregular 3-fold cover of the 4-sphere whose branching set is a surface in $S^4$, smoothly embedded except for one singular point which is the cone on a link. A 4-manifold admits such a trisection if and only if it has a handle decomposition with no 1-handles; it is conjectured that all simply-connected 4-manifolds have this property.
We construct the lattice gauge theory of the group G_N, the semidirect product of the permutation group S_N with U(1)^N, on an arbitrary Riemann surface. This theory describes the branched coverings of a two-dimensional target surface by strings carrying a U(1) gauge field on the world sheet. These are the non-supersymmetric Matrix Strings that arise in the unitary gauge quantization of a generalized two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory. By classifying the irreducible representations of G_N, we give the most general formulation of the lattice gauge theory of G_N, which includes arbitrary branching points on the world sheet and describes the splitting and joining of strings.
We classify 3-braids arising from collision-free choreographic motions of 3 bodies on Lissajous plane curves, and present a parametrization in terms of levels and (Christoffel) slopes. Each of these Lissajous 3-braids represents a pseudo-Anosov mapping class whose dilatation increases when the level ascends in the natural numbers or when the slope descends in the Stern-Brocot tree. We also discuss 4-symbol frieze patterns that encode cutting sequences of geodesics along the Farey tessellation in relation to odd continued fractions of quadratic surds for the Lissajous 3-braids.
We use grid diagrams to present a unified picture of braids, Legendrian knots, and transverse knots.