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We say that a knot $k_{1}$ in the $3$-sphere $1$-dominates another $k_{2}$ if there is a proper degree 1 map $E(k_{1})\to E(k_{2})$ between their exteriors, and write $k_{1}\ge k_{2}$. When $k_{1}\ge k_{2}$ but $k_{1}\ne k_{2}$ we write $k_{1}>k_{2}$. One expects in the latter eventuality that $k_{1}$ is more complicated. In this paper, we produce various sorts of evidence to support this philosophy.

We show how to use topological ideas, such as compactness, to establish orderability properties of infinite groups. A new application is to provide a left-ordering for the group of PL homeomorphisms of a connected surface with boundary which are fixed on at least one boundary component. This has been extended in recent joint work by the author and D. Calegari.

We establish a necessary condition that an automorphism of a nontrivial finitely generated bi-orderable group can preserve a bi-ordering: at least one of its eigenvalues, suitably defined, must be real and positive. Applications are given to knot theory, spaces which fibre over the circle and to the Heegaard-Floer homology of surgery manifolds. In particular, we show that if a nontrivial fibred knot has bi-orderable knot group, then its Alexander polynomial has a positive real root. This implies that many specific knot groups are not bi-orderable. We also show that if the group of a nontrivial knot is bi-orderable, surgery on the knot cannot produce an $L$-space, as defined by Ozsv\'ath and Szab\'o., Comment: Minor changes from first version

We consider group orders and right-orders which are discrete, meaning there is a least element which is greater than the identity. We note that nonabelian free groups cannot be given discrete orders, although they do have right-orders which are discrete. More generally, we give necessary and sufficient conditions that a given orderable group can be endowed with a discrete order. In particular, every orderable group [math] embeds in a discretely orderable group. We also consider conditions on right-orderable groups to be discretely right-orderable. Finally, we discuss a number of illustrative examples involving discrete orderability, including the Artin braid groups and Bergman’s nonlocally-indicable right orderable groups.

This paper is a study of the subgroups of the mapping class groups of Riemann surfaces, called "geometric" subgroups, corresponding to the inclusion of subsurfaces. Our analysis includes surfaces with boundary and with punctures. The centres of all the mapping class groups are calculated. We determine the kernel of inclusion-induced maps of the mapping class group of a subsurface, and give necessary and sufficient conditions for injectivity. In the injective case, we show that the commensurability class of a geometric subgroup completely determines up to isotopy the defining subsurface, and we characterize centralizers, normalizers, and commensurators of geometric subgroups., 42 pages, 23 figures. See also http://math.u-bourgogne.fr/topolog/paris/index.html

We give an explicit geometric argument that Artin's braid group $B_n$ is right-orderable. The construction is elementary, natural, and leads to a new, effectively computable, canonical form for braids which we call left-consistent canonical form. The left-consistent form of a braid which is positive (respectively negative) in our order has consistently positive (respectively negative) exponent in the smallest braid generator which occurs. It follows that our ordering is identical to that of Dehornoy, constructed by very different means, and we recover Dehornoy's main theorem that any braid can be put into such a form using either positive or negative exponent in the smallest generator but not both. Our definition of order is strongly connected with Mosher's normal form and this leads to an algorithm to decide whether a given braid is positive, trivial, or negative which is quadratic in the length of the braid word., 24 pages, 10 figures