Braids, Proceedings of the AMS-IMS-SIAM Joint Summer Research Conference on Artin's Braid Groupheld July 13-26, 1986 at the University of California, Santa Cruz, California

Braid groups were introduced into the mathematical literature in 1925 in a seminar paper by E. Artin, although the idea was implicit in Hurwitz's 1891 manuscript. In the years since, and particularly in the last 5-10 years, they have played a role in diverse and unexpected ways in widely different areas of mathematics, including knot theory, homotopy theory, singularity theory, dynamical systems, and most recently operator algebras, where exciting new discoveries are closing the gap by having striking applications to knots and links. This volume contains the Proceedings of a conference on BRAIDS which was held in Santa Cruz, California during July, 1986, Its purpose was to bring together specialists from these different areas of mathematics, so that they could discuss their discoveries and exchange ideas and open problems concerning this important and fundamental group. The conference was truly interdisciplinary.