Introduction
This is a (currently very basic) applet for playing around with the BraidGroup.
In its current form it does only allow for positive generators ( which are sufficient for generating the whole group as proven by Garside ),
but negative generators will be added in the future as well.
You can interactively change the width of the tangles with the slider and export the current braid word to a PNG image.
Comments are highly appreciated, please direct them to NoJ[AT]JanusSysteme[DOT]de
Usage
Enter words of the form "i, j, k, ..." where i, j, k \in ℤ ( e.g. 1,2,3,1,2,1 for the Garside Δ3 ).
Although the generators are not bounded, using values > 30 makes the output somewhat confusing.
Using the applet outside of the browser, e.g. by using SUNs appletviewer, this restriction does not apply, as the window can be resized interactively.
The source code of the applet can be found: here
Examples
- The standard braid for braiding hair: (1,-2)+, where + means "at least once,but possibly infinity many times".