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Subgroup membership problem in the braid group B4

Determine whether the subgroup membership problem is decidable in the four-strand braid group B4; specifically, decide whether there exists an algorithm that, given a finitely generated subgroup H ≤ B4 and an element g ∈ B4, determines whether g ∈ H.

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Background

While Makanina proved undecidability of subgroup membership in Bn for n ≥ 5, the case n = 4 has resisted resolution. The authors note structural complexity (e.g., incoherence of B4) and provide various undecidability results, yet the subgroup membership problem for B4 remains unresolved.

References

Other problems that remain open for $B_4$ are the group problem and the subgroup membership problem.

Membership problems in braid groups and Artin groups (2409.11335 - Gray et al., 17 Sep 2024) in Section 3.3 (Undecidability in the braid group B4)