Big mapping class groups with uncountable integral homology
Abstract
We prove that, for any infinite-type surface , the integral homology of the closure of the compactly-supported mapping class group and of the Torelli group is uncountable in every positive degree. By our results in arXiv:2211.07470 and other known computations, such a statement cannot be true for the full mapping class group for all infinite-type surfaces . However, we are still able to prove that the integral homology of is uncountable in all positive degrees for a large class of infinite-type surfaces . The key property of this class of surfaces is, roughly, that the space of ends of the surface contains a limit point of topologically distinguished points. Our result includes in particular all finite-genus surfaces having countable end spaces with a unique point of maximal Cantor-Bendixson rank , where is a successor ordinal. We also observe an order- element in the first homology of the pure mapping class group of any surface of genus , answering a recent question of G. Domat.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2212.11942,
title = {Big mapping class groups with uncountable integral homology},
author = {Martin Palmer and Xiaolei Wu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2212.11942},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
20 pages, 6 figures. To appear in Documenta Mathematica