Generalising previous results on classical braid groups by Artin and Lin, we determine the values of m, n ∈ $\mathbb N$ for which there exists a surjection between the n- and m-string braid groups of an orientable surface without boundary. This result is essentially based on specific properties of their lower central series, and the proof is completely combinatorial. We provide similar but partial results in the case of orientable surfaces with boundary components and of non-orientable surfaces without boundary. We give also several results about the classification of different representations of surface braid groups in symmetric groups.

In this paper, we study Abelian and metabelian quotients of braid groups of oriented surfaces with boundary components. We provide group presentations and we prove rigidity results for these quotients arising from exact sequences related to (generalised) Fadell–Neuwirth fibrations.

We study the rigidity problem for periodic orbits of (continuous) graph maps belonging to the same homotopy equivalence class. Since the underlying spaces are not necessarily homeomorphic, we define a new notion of pattern which enables us to compare periodic orbits of self-maps of homotopy-equivalent spaces. This definition unifies the known notions of pattern for other spaces. The two main results of the paper are as follows: given a free group endomorphism, we study the persistence under homotopy of the periodic orbits of its topological representatives, and in the irreducible case, we prove the minimality (within the homotopy class) of the set of periodic orbits of its efficient representatives.

Let $M$ be a compact, connected surface without boundary and different from $\rp$, and let $B_n(M)$ and $P_n(M)$ denote its braid group and pure braid group on $n$ strings respectively. In this paper, we study the roots of the ‘full twist’ braid in $P_n(M)$ and $B_n(M){\setminus} P_n(M)$. Our main results may be summarised as follows: first, the full twist has no non-trivial root in $P_n(M)$. Further, if $M\ne \St$ and $k\geq 2$, it has a $k\th$ root in $B_n(M){\setminus} P_n(M)$ if and only if $k$ divides either $n$ or $n-1$. This generalises results concerning the sphere of Gillette, Van Buskirk and Murasugi. We also show that the Artin pure braid groups and the pure braid groups of the sphere admit a (non-trivial) splitting as a direct product of which one of the factors is the cyclic group generated by the full twist.

It is a well-known result in one-dimensional dynamics that if a continuous map of the interval has positive topological entropy, then it has a periodic orbit of period 2i for each integer i ≥ 0 [15] (see also [12]). In fact, one can say rather more: such a map has a sequence of periodic orbits (P)i ≥ 0 with per (Pi) = 2i which form a period-doubling cascade (that is, whose points are ordered and permuted in the way which would occur had the orbits been created in a sequence of period-doubling bifurcations starting from a single fixed point). This result reflects the central role played by period-doubling in transitions to positive entropy in a one-dimensional setting. In this paper we prove an analogous result for positive-entropy orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms of the disc. Using the notion [9] of a two-dimensional cascade, we shall show that such diffeomorphisms always have infinitely many ‘zero-entropy’ cascades of periodic orbits (including a period-doubling cascade, though this need not begin from a fixed point).

Given a surface homeomorphism isotopic to the identity which is pseudo-Anosov relative to a finite set, we show that the sum of the Lefschetz numbers of periodic points of any period greater than one is non-negative. If this period is odd and greater than a number which depends only on the surface, the sum is zero. If we consider sequences of periods such that each element is twice that of its predecessor, then this sum is increasing beyond a certain point also depending on the surface. As a corollary, for each periodic orbit contained within the boundary of the surface there exists one of the same period contained in the interior.