English

Big mapping class groups with uncountable integral homology

Geometric Topology 2025-01-07 v3 Algebraic Topology Group Theory

Abstract

We prove that, for any infinite-type surface SS, the integral homology of the closure of the compactly-supported mapping class group PMapc(S)\overline{\mathrm{PMap}_c(S)} and of the Torelli group T(S)\mathcal{T}(S) 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 Map(S)\mathrm{Map}(S) for all infinite-type surfaces SS. However, we are still able to prove that the integral homology of Map(S)\mathrm{Map}(S) is uncountable in all positive degrees for a large class of infinite-type surfaces SS. The key property of this class of surfaces is, roughly, that the space of ends of the surface SS 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 α\alpha, where α\alpha is a successor ordinal. We also observe an order-1010 element in the first homology of the pure mapping class group of any surface of genus 22, answering a recent question of G. Domat.

Keywords

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

R2 v1 2026-06-28T07:49:28.541Z