English

Big mapping class groups and the co-Hopfian property

Geometric Topology 2021-03-02 v3

Abstract

We study injective homomorphisms between big mapping class groups of infinite-type surfaces. First, we construct (uncountably many) examples of surfaces without boundary whose (pure) mapping class groups are not co-Hopfian; these are the first examples of injective endomorphisms of mapping class groups (of surfaces with empty boundary) that fail to be surjective. We then prove that, subject to some topological conditions on the domain surface, any continuous injective homomorphism between (arbitrary) big mapping class groups that sends Dehn twists to Dehn twists is induced by homeomorphism. Finally, we explore the extent to which, in stark contrast to the finite-type case, superinjective maps between curve graphs impose no topological restrictions on the underlying surfaces.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2101.07188,
  title  = {Big mapping class groups and the co-Hopfian property},
  author = {Javier Aramayona and Christopher J. Leininger and Alan McLeay},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2101.07188},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

20 pages, 3 figures. Theorem 3 rephrased for clarity. Minor corrections

R2 v1 2026-06-23T22:17:00.995Z