Narrow Results

In this paper we prove a Markov theorem for virtual braids and for analogs of this structure including flat virtual braids and welded braids. The virtual braid group is the natural companion to the category of virtual knots, just as the Artin braid group is the natural companion to classical knots and links. In this paper we follow L-move methods to prove the Virtual Markov theorems. One benefit of this approach is a fully local algebraic formulation of the theorems in each category.

Every virtual knot has a pair of groups called the upper and lower groups of the knot. In this paper we treat two topics on those groups: We first give a sufficient condition for a pair of groups which are realized by a certain virtual knot as the upper and lower groups. Secondly we give a necessary condition for a virtual knot to be almost classical in terms of the first elementary ideals of the groups.

Satoh defined a map from virtual links to ribbon surfaces embedded in $S^4$. Herein, we generalize this map to virtual $m$-links, and use this to construct generalizations of welded and extended welded knots to higher dimensions. This also allows us to construct two new geometric pictures of virtual $m$-links, including 1-links.