The closure of a braid in a closed orientable surface Ʃ is a link in Ʃ × S1. We classify such closed surface braids up to isotopy and homeomorphism (with a small indeterminacy for isotopy of closed sphere braids), algebraically in terms of the surface braid group. We find that in positive genus, braids close to isotopic links if and only if they are conjugate, and close to homeomorphic links if and only if they are in the same orbit of the outer action of the mapping class group on the surface braid group modulo its centre.

Let $N_g^k$ be a nonorientable surface of genus g with k punctures. In the first part of this note, after introducing preliminary materials, we will give criteria for a chain of Dehn twists to bound a disc. Then, we will show that automorphisms of the mapping class groups map disc bounding chains of Dehn twists to such chains. In the second part of the note, we will introduce bounding pairs of Dehn twists and give an algebraic characterization for such pairs.

It is shown that under $\text{ZFC}$ almost all planar compacta that meet every line in at most two points are subsets of sets that meet every line in exactly two points. This result was previously obtained by the author jointly with K. Kunen and J. vanMill under the assumption that Martin’s Axiom is valid.