A new approach to the word and conjugacy problems in the braid groups

Abstract

A new presentation of the $n$-string braid group $B_n$ is studied. Using it, a new solution to the word problem in $B_n$ is obtained which retains most of the desirable features of the Garside-Thurston solution, and at the same time makes possible certain computational improvements. We also give a related solution to the conjugacy problem, but the improvements in its complexity are not clear at this writing.