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Curve Diagrams, Laminations, and the Geometric Complexity of Braids

Braids can be represented geometrically as curve diagrams. The geometric complexity of a braid is the minimal complexity of a curve diagram representing it. We introduce and study the corresponding notion of geometric generating function. We compute explicitly the geometric generating function for the group of braids on three strands and prove that it is neither rational nor algebraic, nor even holonomic. This result may appear as counterintuitive. Indeed, the standard complexity (due to the Artin presentation of braid groups) is algorithmically harder to compute than the geometric complexity, yet the associated generating function for the group of braids on three strands is rational.