The Bennequin number of n-trivial closed n-braids is negative

2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/130446A famous result of Bennequin states that for any braid representative of the unknot the Bennequin number is negative. We will extend this result to all n-trivial closed n-braids. This is a class of infinitely many knots closed under taking mirror images. Our proof relies on a non-standard parametrization of the Homfly polynomial.7 pagesGeometric TopologySymplectic Geometry57M25; 57M27; 57M50The Bennequin number of n-trivial closed n-braids is negativetext