Noncrossing partitions for periodic braids

Abstract

An element in Artin's braid group $B_n$ is called periodic if it has a power which lies in the center of $B_n$. The conjugacy problem for periodic braids can be reduced to the following: given a divisor $1\le d<n-1$ of $n-1$ and an element $α$ in the super summit set of $ε^d$, find $γ\in B_n$ such that $γ^{-1}αγ=ε^d$, where $ε=(σ_{n-1}\cdotsσ_1)σ_1$. In this article we characterize the elements in the super summit set of $ε^d$ in the dual Garside structure by studying the combinatorics of noncrossing partitions arising from periodic braids. Our characterization directly provides a conjugating element $γ$. And it determines the size of the super summit set of $ε^d$ by using the zeta polynomial of the noncrossing partition lattice.