Related papers: Separating twists and the Magnus representation of…
Let $\Sigma$ be a compact oriented surface. The Dehn twist along every simple closed curve $\gamma \subset \Sigma$ induces an automorphism of the fundamental group $\pi$ of $\Sigma$. There are two possible ways to generalize such…
We show that the mapping class group of a handlebody of genus at least 2 (with any number of marked points or spots) is exponentially distorted in the mapping class group of its boundary surface. The same holds true for solid tori with at…
The Torelli group, I(S_g), is the subgroup of the mapping class group consisting of elements that act trivially on the homology of the surface. There are three types of elements that naturally arise in studying I(S_g): bounding pair maps,…
We study framed translation surfaces corresponding to meromorphic differentials on compact Riemann surfaces, for which a horizontal separatrix is marked for each pole or zero. Such geometric structures naturally appear when studying flat…
We showed that the twist subgroup of the mapping class group of a closed connected nonorientable surface of genus $g\geq13$ can be generated by two involutions and an element of order $g$ or $g-1$ depending on whether $g$ is odd or even…
We consider the homotopical dynamics on compact orientable surfaces of positive genus g. We establish a sufficient and necessary algebraic criterion for homotopy classes with infinitely many periodic points of maps on such surfaces in terms…
We prove that the cohomological dimension of the Torelli group for a closed connected orientable surface of genus g at least 2 is equal to 3g-5. This answers a question of Mess, who proved the lower bound and settled the case of g=2. We…
It is a classical result of Powell that pure mapping class groups of connected, orientable surfaces of finite type and genus at least three are perfect. In stark contrast, we construct nontrivial homomorphisms from infinite-genus mapping…
The homology groups of the automorphism group of a free group are known to stabilize as the number of generators of the free group goes to infinity, and this paper relativizes this result to a family of groups that can be defined in terms…
We show that the automorphism group of a certain subclass of smooth Gizatullin surfaces with a distinguished and rigid extended divisor is generated by automorphisms of A1-fibrations. Moreover, such surfaces provide examples of smooth…
Let $M$ be a closed connected smooth manifold and $G=\textmd{Diff}_0(M)$ denote the connected component of the diffeomorphism group of $M$ containing the identity. The natural action of $G$ on $M$ induces the trace homomorphism on homology.…
Let $S$ be an oriented surface of genus $g$ and $n$ punctures. The periods of any meromorphic differential on $S$, with respect to a choice of complex structure, determine a representation $\chi:\Gamma_{g,n} \to\mathbb C$ where…
We study the algebraic property of the representation of the mapping class group of a closed oriented surface of genus 2 constructed by VFR Jones [Annals of Math. 126 (1987) 335-388]. It arises from the Iwahori-Hecke algebra representations…
The structure of the first homology group of a cyclic covering of a knot is an important invariant well known in the knot theory. In the last century, H. Seifert developed a general approach to compute the homology group of the covering.…
Putman introduced a notion of a partitioned surface which is a surface with boundary with decoration restricting how the surface can be embedded into larger surfaces, and defined the Torelli group of the partitioned surfaces. In this paper,…
Dehn twists around simple closed curves in oriented surfaces satisfy the braid relations. This gives rise to a group theoretic from the braid group to the mapping class group. We prove here that this map is trivial in stable homology with…
For groups of a topological origin, such as braid groups and mapping class groups, an important source of interesting and highly non-trivial representations is given by their actions on the twisted homology of associated spaces; these are…
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…
These are the lecture notes for my course at the 2011 Park City Mathematics Graduate Summer School. The first two lectures covered the basics of the Torelli group and the Johnson homomorphism, and the third and fourth lectures discussed the…
We give an algorithm which computes a presentation for a subgroup, denoted $\AM_{g,1,p}$, of the automorphism group of a free group. It is known that $\AM_{g,1,p}$ is isomorphic to the mapping-class group of an orientable genus-$g$ surface…