The root extraction problem for generic braids

We show that, generically, finding the k-th root of a braid is very fast. More precisely, we provide an algorithm which, given a braid x on n strands and canonical length l, and an integer k > 1, computes a k-th root of x, if it exists, or guarantees that such a root does not exist. The generic-c...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Cumplido Cabello, María, González-Meneses López, Juan, Silvero Casanova, Marithania
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2019
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repository:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/91652
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/91652
https://doi.org/10.3390/sym11111327
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Braid groups
Aalgorithms in groups
Group-based cryptography
Description
Summary:We show that, generically, finding the k-th root of a braid is very fast. More precisely, we provide an algorithm which, given a braid x on n strands and canonical length l, and an integer k > 1, computes a k-th root of x, if it exists, or guarantees that such a root does not exist. The generic-case complexity of this algorithm is O(l(l + n)n3 log n). The non-generic cases are treated using a previously known algorithm by Sang-Jin Lee. This algorithm uses the fact that the ultra summit set of a braid is, generically, very small and symmetric (through conjugation by the Garside element ∆), consisting of either a single orbit conjugated to itself by ∆ or two orbits conjugated to each other by ∆.