A New Algorithm for Solving the Word Problem in Braid Groups

One of the most interesting questions about a group is if its word problem can be solved and how. The word problem in the braid group is of particular interest to topologists, algebraists and geometers, and is the target of intensive current research. We look at the braid group from a topological point of view (rather than a geometrical one). The braid group is defined by the action of diffeomorphisms on the fundamental group of a punctured disk. We exploit the topological definition of the braid group in order to give a new approach for solving its word problem. Our algorithm is faster, in comparison with known algorithms, for short braid words with respect to Partially supported by the Emmy Noether Research Institute for Mathematics, Bar-Ilan University and the Minerva Foundation, Germany, and by the Excellency Center “Group theoretic methods in the study of algebraic varieties” of the National Science Foundation of Israel.