Tied Links in various topological settings

Abstract

Tied links in $S^3$ were introduced by Aicardi and Juyumaya as standard links in $S^3$ equipped with some non-embedded arcs, called {\it ties}, joining some components of the link. Tied links in the Solid Torus were then naturally generalized by Flores. In this paper we study this new class of links in other topological settings. More precisely, we study tied links in the lens spaces $L(p,1)$, in handlebodies of genus $g$, and in the complement of the $g$-component unlink. We introduce the tied braid groups $TB_{g, n}$ by combining the algebraic mixed braid groups defined by Lambropoulou and the tied braid monoid, and we state and prove Alexander's and Markov's theorems for tied links in the 3-manifolds mentioned above. Finally, we emphasize on further steps needed in order to study tied links in knot complements and c.c.o. 3-manifolds, which is the subject of a sequel paper.