Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
The knots and links which can arise as the closure of 3-string braids, and their relations to the braids which give rise to them have been studied by Murasugi [5] and others, including Hartley [2] and more recently Przytycki[6]. Three-braids appear to form a rather special class among braids from some points of view [3]; they are also the only group of braids for which Burau's representation is known to be faithful [1]. They are, however, varied enough to provide an interesting range of knots and links on which to test a number of conjectures.