On the Negative Band Number
Michele Capovilla-Searle, Tetsuya Ito, Keiko Kawamuro, Rebecca Sorsen · The Quarterly Journal of Mathematics · 2026
Abstract We study the negative band number of braids, knots and links using Birman, Ko and Lee’s left-canonical form of a braid. As applications, we characterize up to conjugacy strongly quasipositive braids and almost strongly quasipositive braids.