Related papers: Some groups of mapping classes not realized by dif…

If $G$ is a finitely generated group with generators $\{g_1,..., g_s\}$, we say an infinite-order element $f \in G$ is a distortion element of $G$ provided that $\displaystyle \liminf_{n \to \infty} \frac{|f^n|}{n} = 0$, where $|f^n|$ is…

We prove a result that relates the number of homomorphisms from the fundamental group of a compact nonorientable surface to a finite group $G$, where conjugacy classes of the boundary components of the surface must map to prescribed…

We answer affirmatively a question posed by Morita on homological stability of surface diffeomorphisms made discrete. In particular, we prove that $C^{\infty}$-diffeomorphisms and volume preserving diffeomorphisms of surfaces as family of…

We will show the following three theorems on the diffeomorphism and homeomorphism groups of a $K3$ surface. The first theorem is that the natural map $\pi_{0}(Diff(K3)) \to Aut(H^{2}(K3;\mathbb{Z}))$ has a section over its image. The second…

Let $S$ be a surface with $p_g(S)=q(S)=0$ and endowed with a very ample line bundle $\mathcal O_S(h)$ such that $h^1\big(S,\mathcal O_S(h)\big)=0$. We show that $S$ supports special (often stable) Ulrich bundles of rank $2$, extending a…

We give a classification of generic coadjoint orbits for the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of a closed non-orientable surface. This completes V. Arnold's program of studying invariants of incompressible fluids in 2D. As an…

We continue our previous work to prove that for any non-minimal ruled surface $(M,\omega)$, the stability under symplectic deformations of $\pi_0, \pi_1$ of $Symp(M,\omega)$ is guided by embedded $J$-holomorphic curves. Further, we prove…

The main goal of this paper is a detailed study of asymptotic cones of the mapping class groups. In particular, we prove that every asymptotic cone of a mapping class group has a bi-Lipschitz equivariant embedding into a product of real…

Given the interest in relating the large $N$ limit of SU(N) to groups of area-preserving diffeomorphisms, we consider the topologies of these groups and show that both in terms of homology and homotopy, they are extremely different. Similar…

We show that for a smooth, closed 2-connected manifold $M$ of dimension $d \geq 6$, the topological mapping class group $\pi_0 \mathrm{Homeo}(M)$ is residually finite, in contrast to the situation for the smooth mapping class group $\pi_0…

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…

We exhibit many examples of closed complex surfaces whose diffeomorphism groups are not simply-connected and contain loops that are not homotopic to loops of symplectomorphisms.

If P \to X is a topological principal K-bundle and \hat K a central extension of K by Z, then there is a natural obstruction class \delta_1(P) in \check H^2(X,\uline Z) in sheaf cohomology whose vanishing is equivalent to the existence of a…

Let $S$ be a surface with $p_g(S)=0$, $q(S)=1$ and endowed with a very ample line bundle $\mathcal O_S(h)$ such that $h^1\big(S,\mathcal O_S(h)\big)=0$. We show that such an $S$ supports families of dimension $p$ of pairwise non-isomorphic,…

We prove that a real analytic pseudo-rotation $f$ of the disc or the sphere is never topologically mixing. When the rotation number of $f$ is of Brjuno type, the latter follows from a KAM theorem of R\"ussmann on the stability of real…

We study when the mapping class group of an infinite-type surface $S$ admits an action with unbounded orbits on a connected graph whose vertices are simple closed curves on $S$. We introduce a topological invariant for infinite-type…

The mapping class group $\mathrm{Mod}_{g, 1}$ of a surface with one marked point can be identified with an index two subgroup of $\mathrm{Aut}(\pi_1 \Sigma_g)$. For a surface of genus $g \geq 2$, we show that any action of $\mathrm{Mod}_{g,…

In this paper we prove that no complex surface of general type is diffeomorphic to a rational surface, thereby completing the smooth classification of rational surfaces and the proof of the Van de Ven conjecture on the smooth invariance of…

Let $M$ be a four-holed sphere and $\Gamma$ the mapping class group of $M$ fixing $\partial M$. The group $\Gamma$ acts on the space ${\mathcal M}_{\mathcal B}(SU(2))$ of SU(2)-gauge equivalence classes of flat SU(2)-connections on $M$ with…

We consider a log-Riemann surface $\mathcal{S}$ with a finite number of ramification points and finitely generated fundamental group. The log-Riemann surface is equipped with a local holomorphic difffeomorphism $\pi : \mathcal{S} \to \C$.…