For a Braid with strands, components, positive crossings, and negative crossings,
See also Bennequin's Conjecture, Braid, Unknotting Number
References
Cipra, B. ``From Knot to Unknot.'' What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences, Vol. 2.
Providence, RI: Amer. Math. Soc., pp. 8-13, 1994.
Menasco, W. W. ``The Bennequin-Milnor Unknotting Conjectures.'' C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris Sér. I Math. 318, 831-836, 1994.