Related papers: Magnus subgroups of one-relator surface groups

Let M be a surface (possibly nonorientable) with punctures and/or boundary components. The paper is a study of ``geometric subgroups'' of the mapping class group of M, that is subgroups corresponding to inclusions of subsurfaces (possibly…

For a oriented genus g surface with one boundary component, S, the Torelli group is the group of orientation preserving homeomorphisms of S that induce the identity on homology. The Magnus representation of the Torelli group represents the…

We consider the subspace of the homology of a covering space spanned by lifts of simple closed curves. Our main result is the existence of unbranched covers of surfaces where this is a proper subspace. More generally, for a fixed finite…

This is a survey of Magnus representations with particular emphasis on their applications to mapping class groups and monoids (groups) of homology cobordisms of surfaces. In the first half, we begin by recalling the basics of the Fox…

This communication records some observations made in the course of studying one-relator groups from the point of view of residual solvability. As a contribution to clas- sification efforts we single out some relator types that render the…

We construct a group associated to a class of Borcherds algebras that admit a direct sum decomposition into a Kac--Moody (or semi-simple) subalgebra and a pair of free Lie subalgebras. Such Borcherds algebras have no mutually orthogonal…

A product-quotient surface is the minimal resolution of the singularities of the quotient of a product of two curves by the action of a finite group acting separately on the two factors. We classify all minimal product-quotient surfaces of…

Let $X$ be a Riemann surface, and let $f:X\to\mathbb{P}^1_\mathbb{C}$ be an indecomposable (branched) covering of genus $g$ and degree $n$ whose monodromy group has more than one minimal normal subgroup. Closing a gap in the literature, we…

We provide an infinite family of sofic one-relator groups that are not residually solvable nor residually finite. The proof is essentially different from the one in [1], as it does not require just Magnus' decompositions.

A group $G$ possesses the Magnus property if for every two elements $u$, $v \in G$ with the same normal closure, $u$ is conjugate to $v$ or $v^{-1}$. O. Bogopolski and J. Howie proved independently that the fundamental groups of all closed…

Let $R$ be an integral domain and $G$ be a subgroup of its group of units. We consider the category $\mathbf{\mathsf{Cob}}_G$ of 3-dimensional cobordisms between oriented surfaces with connected boundary, equipped with a representation of…

This is an English translation of three articles, originally written in German, by Wilhelm Magnus (1907--1990). The articles are from 1930, 1931, and 1932, respectively, and were the first articles published on one-relator group theory. The…

We prove that the complex surfaces parametrizing cuboids and face cuboids, as well as their minimal resolution of singularities, have trivial fundamental group. We then compute the fundamental group of certain open smooth subvarieties of…

In this paper we prove several results regarding decidability of the membership problem for certain submonoids in amalgamated free products and HNN extensions of groups. These general results are then applied to solve the prefix membership…

We prove that one-relator groups with negative immersions are hyperbolic and virtually special; this resolves a recent conjecture of Louder and Wilton. As a consequence, one-relator groups with negative immersions are residually finite,…

Let G be a group definable in an o-minimal structure M. We prove that the union of the Cartan subgroups of G is a dense subset of G. When M is an expansion of a real closed field we give a characterization of Cartan subgroups of G via their…

Let G be a word-hyperbolic group, obtained as a graph of free groups amalgamated along cyclic subgroups. If H_2(G;Q) is nonzero, then G contains a closed hyperbolic surface subgroup. Moreover, the unit ball of the Gromov-Thurston norm on…

The set of homology cobordisms from a surface to itself with markings of their boundaries has a natural monoid structure. To investigate the structure of this monoid, we define and study its Magnus representation and Reidemeister torsion…

A residually nilpotent group is \emph{$k$-parafree} if all of its lower central series quotients match those of a free group of rank $k$. Magnus proved that $k$-parafree groups of rank $k$ are themselves free. We mimic this theory with…

We prove that a one-relator group $G$ is K\"ahler if and only if either $G$ is finite cyclic or $G$ is isomorphic to the fundamental group of a compact orbifold Riemann surface of genus $g > 0$ with at most one cone point of order $n$: $$<…