These are Lecture Notes of a course given by the author at the French-Spanish School Tresses in Pau, held in Pau (France) in October 2009. It is basically an introduction to distinct approaches and techniques that can be used to show results in braid groups. Using these techniques we provide several proofs of well known results in braid groups, namely the correctness of Artin’s presentation, that the braid group is torsion free, or that its center is generated by the full twist. We also recall some...

For any number field $K$ with non-elementary $3$-class group ${\mathrm{Cl}}_3\left(K\right)\simeq C_{3^e}\times C_3$, $e\ge 2$, the punctured capitulation type $\varkappa \left(K\right)$ of $K$ in its unramified cyclic cubic extensions $L_i$, $1\le i\le 4$, is an orbit under the action of $S_3\times S_3$. By means of Artin’s reciprocity law, the arithmetical invariant $\varkappa \left(K\right)$ is translated to the punctured transfer kernel type $\varkappa \left(G_2\right)$ of the automorphism group $G_2=\mathrm{Gal}({\mathrm{F}}_3^2\left(K\right)/K)$ of the second Hilbert $3$-class field of $K$. A classification of finite $3$-groups $G$ with low order and bicyclic commutator quotient $G/G^{\text{'}}\simeq C_{3^e}\times C_3$, $2\le e\le 6$, according to the algebraic invariant...

On étudie les morphismes d’un groupe infini discret $\Pi$ dans un groupe de Lie $G$ contenu dans le groupe des difféomorphismes de la droite réelle. À un tel morphisme $H$, on associe deux ensembles de “bouts” de $\Pi$ “dans la direction” $H$. On calcule le nombre de bouts dans plusieurs situations. Dans le cas particulier où $\Pi$ est de type fini et où $G$ est le groupe des translations, $\Pi$ n’a qu’un bout dans la direction $H$ si, et seulement si, ils vérifient la propriété de Bieri-Neumann-Strebel.