Related papers: Sieve methods in group theory II: The Mapping Clas…
We construct sequences of pseudo-Anosov mapping classes whose dilatations behave asymptotically like the inverse of the Euler characteristic of the surface they are defined on. These sequences are used to show that if the genus, g, and…
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…
Examples of aspherical closed symplectic 4-manifolds are presented whose Sullivan minimal models are (1,n)-formal for any n, without being formal. They have as cohomology algebra, signature, canonical class, those of a product of a closed…
A general sieve method for groups is formulated. It enables one to "measure" subsets of a finitely generated group. As an application we show that if $\Gamma$ is a finitely generated non virtually-solvable linear group of characteristic…
This paper uses the renowned Kechris-Pestov-Todor\v{c}evi\'{c} machinery to show that (big) mapping class groups are not extremely amenable unless the underlying surface is a sphere or a once-punctured sphere, or equivalently when the…
In this paper, we construct an infinite presentation of the Torelli subgroup of the mapping class group of a surface whose generators consist of the set of all "separating twists", all "bounding pair maps", and all "commutators of simply…
A proof of Thompson's conjecture for real semi-simple Lie groups has been given by Kapovich, Millson, and Leeb. In this note, we give another proof of the conjecture by using a theorem of Alekseev, Meinrenken, and Woodward from symplectic…
We prove several rigidity properties for random quotients of mapping class groups of surfaces, namely whose kernel is normally generated by the n-th steps of finitely many independent random walks. Firstly, we generalise a celebrated…
Let S be a closed oriented surface of genus g > 1, and let T denote its Torelli group. First, given a set E of homotopically nontrivial, pairwise disjoint, pairwise nonisotopic simple closed curves on S, we determine precisely when a…
We define and study analogues of exponentials for functions on noncommutative two-tori that depend on a choice of a complex structure. The major difference with the commutative case is that our noncommutative exponentials can be defined…
We use basic tools of descriptive set theory to prove that a closed set $\mathcal S$ of marked groups has $2^{\aleph_0}$ quasi-isometry classes provided every non-empty open subset of $\mathcal S$ contains at least two non-quasi-isometric…
There is a forgetful map from the mapping class group of a punctured surface to that of the surface with one fewer puncture. We prove that finitely generated purely pseudo-Anosov subgroups of the kernel of this map are convex cocompact in…
Under non-commutative Stone duality, there is a correspondence between second countable Hausdorff \'etale groupoids which have a Cantor space of identities and what we call Tarski inverse monoids: that is, countable Boolean inverse…
We give a new proof of the theorem of Birman-Powell that the Torelli subgroup of the mapping class group of a closed orientable surface of genus at least 3 is generated by simple homeomorphisms known as bounding pair maps. The key…
In this paper we prove that the Torelli part of the symplectomorphism groups of the $n$-point ($n\leq 4$) blow-ups of the projective plane is trivial. Consequently, we determine the symplectic mapping class group. It is generated by…
In this paper, we establish that, for statistically convex-cocompact actions, contracting elements are exponentially generic in counting measure. Among others, the following exponential genericity results are obtained as corollaries for the…
For any surface $\Sigma$ of infinite topological type, we study the Torelli subgroup ${\mathcal I}(\Sigma)$ of the mapping class group ${\rm MCG}(\Sigma)$, whose elements are those mapping classes that act trivially on the homology of…
We present a complete classification of elements in the mapping class group of the torus which have a representative that can be written as a product of two orientation reversing involutions. Our interest in such decompositions is motivated…
We construct the first known examples of nontrivial, normal, all pseudo-Anosov subgroups of mapping class groups of surfaces. Specifically, we construct such subgroups for the closed genus two surface and for the sphere with five or more…
Let Gamma_k be the lower central series of a surface group Gamma of a compact surface S with one boundary component. A simple question to ponder is whether a mapping class of S can be determined to be pseudo-Anosov given only the data of…