Each regular code is included in a maximal regular code
Après une introduction de caractère historique, l'auteur expose succinctement les principaux résultats qu'il a obtenus (thèse, Paris 1969) dans le domaine jusqu'alors pratiquement inexploré des équations dans les monoïdes libres.
A result by Dehornoy (1992) says that every nontrivial braid admits a -definite expression, defined as a braid word in which the generator with maximal index appears with exponents that are all positive, or all negative. This is the ground result for ordering braids. In this paper, we enhance this result and prove that every braid admits a -definite word expression that, in addition, is quasi-geodesic. This establishes a longstanding conjecture. Our proof uses the dual braid monoid and a new...