Crystallographic complex reflection groups are generated by reflections about affine hyperplanes in complex space and stabilize a full rank lattice. These analogs of affine Weyl groups have infinite order and were classified by V.L. Popov in 1982. The classical Braid theorem (first established by E. Artin and E. Brieskorn) asserts that the Artin group of a reflection group (finite or affine Weyl) gives the fundamental group of regular orbits. In other words, the fundamental group of the space with reflecting hyperplanes removed has a presentation mimicking that of the Coxeter presentation; one need only remove relations giving generators finite order. N.V Dung used a semi-cell construction to prove the Braid theorem for affine Weyl groups. Malle conjectured that the Braid theorem holds for all crystallographic complex reflection groups after constructing Coxeter-like reflection presentations. We show how to extend Dung's ideas to crystallographic complex reflection groups and then extend the Braid theorem to some groups in the infinite family [G(r,p,n)]. The proof requires a new classification of crystallographic groups in the infinite family that fail the Steinberg theorem.

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Knot nullification is an unknotting operation performed on knots and links that can be used to model DNA recombination moves of circular DNA molecules in the laboratory. Thus nullification is a biologically relevant operation that should be studied. Nullification moves can be naturally grouped into two classes: coherent nullification, which preserves the orientation of the knot, and incoherent nullification, which changes the orientation of the knot. We define the coherent (incoherent) nullification number of a knot or link as the minimal number of coherent (incoherent) nullification moves needed to unknot any knot or link. This thesis concentrates on the study of such nullification numbers. In more detail, coherent nullification moves have already been studied at quite some length. This is because the preservation of the previous orientation of the knot, or link, makes the coherent operation easier to study. In particular, a complete solution of coherent nullification numbers has been obtained for the torus knot family, (the solution of the torus link family is still an open question). In this thesis, we concentrate on incoherent nullification numbers, and place an emphasis on calculating the incoherent nullification number for the torus knot and link family. Unfortunately, we were unable to compute the exact incoherent nullification numbers for most torus knots. Instead, our main results are upper and lower bounds on the incoherent nullification number of torus knots and links. In addition we conjecture what the actual incoherent nullification number of a torus knot will be.

Thesis by publication. / Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University (Division of Information & Communication Sciences, Dept. of Mathematics), 2007. / Bibliography: p. 119-123. / Introduction -- Mackey functors on compact closed categories -- Lax braidings and the lax centre -- On centres and lax centres for promonoidal catagories -- Pullback and finite coproduct preserving functors between categories of permutation representations -- Conclusion. / This thesis studies the theory of Mackey functors as an application of enriched category theory and highlights the notions of lax braiding and lax centre for monoidal categories and more generally promonoidal categories ... The third contribution of this thesis is the study of functors between categories of permutation representations. / x,123 p. ill

Dans la première partie de cette thèse on étudiera la conjecture de généricité: dans le graphe de Cayley du groupe modulaire d'une surface fermée on regarde une boule centrée à l'identité et on s'intéresse à la proportion de sommets pseudo-Anosov dans cette boule. La conjecture de généricité affirme que cette proportion doit tendre vers 1 quand le rayon de la boule tend vers l'infini. On montre qu'elle est bornée inférieurement par un nombre strictement positif et on montre des résultats similaires pour une grande classe de sous-groupes du groupe modulaire. On présente aussi des résultats analogues pour des groupes d'Artin-Tits de type sphérique, en sachant que dans ce cas, être pseudo-Anosov est analogue à agir loxodromiquement sur un complexe delta-hyperbolique convenable. Dans la deuxième partie on donne des résultats sur les sous-groupes paraboliques des groupes d'Artin-Tits de type sphérique: le standardisateur minimal d'une courbe dans le disque troué est la tresse minimale positive qui la fait devenir ronde. On construit un algorithme pour le calculer d'une façon géométrique. Ensuite, on généralise le problème pour les groupes d'Artin-Tits de type sphérique. On montre aussi que l'intersection de deux sous-groupes paraboliques est un sous-groupe parabolique et que l'ensemble de sous-groupes paraboliques est un treillis par rapport à l'inclusion. Finalement, on définit le complexe simplicial des sous-groupes paraboliques irréductibles, et on le propose comme l'analogue du complexe de courbes. / In the first part of this thesis we study the genericity conjecture: In the Cayley graph of the mapping class group of a closed surface we look at a ball of large radius centered on the identity vertex, and at the proportion of pseudo-Anosov vertices among the vertices in this ball. The genericity conjecture states that this proportion should tend to one as the radius tends to infinity. We prove that it stays bounded away from zero and prove similar results for a large class of subgroups of the mapping class group. We also present analogous results for Artin--Tits groups of spherical type, knowing that in this case being pseudo-Anosov is analogous to being a loxodromically acting element. In the second part we provide results about parabolic subgroups of Artin-Tits groups of spherical type: The minimal standardizer of a curve on a punctured disk is the minimal positive braid that transforms it into a round curve. We give an algorithm to compute it in a geometrical way. Then, we generalize this problem algebraically to parabolic subgroups of Artin--Tits groups of spherical type. We also show that the intersection of two parabolic subgroups is a parabolic subgroup and that the set of parabolic subgroups forms a lattice with respect to inclusion. Finally, we define the simplicial complex of irreducible parabolic subgroups, and we propose it as the analogue of the curve complex for mapping class groups.