Related papers: Separating twists and the Magnus representation of…

Deformation spaces Hom($\pi$,G)/G of representations of the fundamental group $\pi$ of a surface $\Sigma$ in a Lie group $G$ admit natural actions of the mapping class group $Mod_\Sigma$, preserving a Poisson structure. When $G$ is compact,…

The mapping torus of an endomorphism \Phi of a group G is the HNN-extension G*_G with bonding maps the identity and \Phi. We show that a mapping torus of an injective free group endomorphism has the property that its finitely generated…

We obtain a finite generating set for the level 2 twist subgroup of the mapping class group of a closed non-orientable surface. The generating set consists of crosscap pushing maps along non-separating two-sided simple loops and squares of…

The mapping class group of a closed surface of genus $g$ is an extension of the Torelli group by the symplectic group. This leads to two natural problems: (a) compute (stably) the symplectic decomposition of the lower central series of the…

Gay and Kirby introduced trisections which describe any closed oriented smooth 4-manifold $X$ as a union of three four-dimensional handlebodies. A trisection is encoded in a diagram, namely three collections of curves in a closed oriented…

For an amalgam of two free groups and a particular kind of automorphism, we show that the Dehn function of the corresponding mapping torus is quadratic.

The Torelli group of a manifold is the group of all diffeomorphisms which act as the identity on the homology of the manifold. In this paper, we calculate the invariant part (invariant under the action of the automorphisms of the homology)…

Given a free-by-cyclic group $G = F_N \rtimes_\varphi \mathbb{Z}$ determined by any outer automorphism $\varphi \in \mathrm{Out}(F_N)$ which is represented by an expanding irreducible train-track map $f$, we construct a $K(G,1)$ $2$-complex…

Let F be a non-abelian finite rank free group, and let H_g be the fundamental group of a surface of genus g with one boundary component represented by D_g in H_g. So, H_g is the free group <a_1,b_1,...,a_g,b_g> and D_g is the product of…

For each closed orientable surface we introduce a simplical complex with some additional structure which is a version of the complex of curves of this surface adjusted to investigation of its Torelli group. We call this complex the Torelli…

Morita introduced in 2008 a 1-cocycle on the group of homology cobordisms of surfaces with values in an infinite-dimensional vector space. His 1-cocycle contains all the "traces" of Johnson homomorphisms which he introduced fifteen years…

Let $G$ be a simply connected compact Lie group and $\mathscr{L}$ be the left invarinat framing of $G$. Let $\mathcal{L}^\lambda$ be the framing obtained by twisting $\mathscr{L}$ by a faithful representation $\lambda$. Given a torus…

This paper establishes robust obstructions to representing Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms as $k$-th powers ($k \geq 2$) or embedding them in flows for certain higher-dimensional symplectic manifolds $(M,\omega)$, including surface bundles. We…

In the theory of one-relator groups, Magnus subgroups, which are free subgroups obtained by omitting a generator that occurs in the given relator, play an essential structural role. In a previous article, the author proved that if two…

Let $G$ be a hyperbolic group that splits as a graph of free groups with cyclic edge groups. We prove that, unless $G$ is isomorphic to a free product of free and surface groups, every finite abelian group $M$ appears as a direct summand in…

We will say that a group G possesses the Magnus property if for any two elements u,v in G with the same normal closure, u is conjugate to v or v^{-1}. We prove that some one-relator groups, including the fundamental groups of closed…

Given a group $G$ of automorphisms of a matroid $M$, we describe the representations of $G$ on the homology of the independence complex of the dual matroid $M^*$. These representations are related with the homology of the lattice of flats…

We investigate representations of mapping class groups of surfaces that arise from the untwisted Drinfeld double of a finite group G, focusing on surfaces without marked points or with one marked point. We obtain concrete descriptions of…

We introduce machinery to allow ``cut-and-paste''-style inductive arguments in the Torelli subgroup of the mapping class group. In the past these arguments have been problematic because restricting the Torelli group to subsurfaces gives…

By a theorem of Thurston, in the subgroup of the mapping class group generated by Dehn twists around two curves that fill, every element not conjugate to a power of one of the twist is pseudo-Anosov. We prove an analogue of this theorem for…