Related papers: Low-dimensional linear representations of mapping …

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…

We prove that the smallest non-trivial quotient of the mapping class group of a connected orientable surface of genus at least 3 without punctures is $\mathrm{Sp}_{2g}(2)$, thus confirming a conjecture of Zimmermann. In the process, we…

We let the mapping class group $\Gamma_{g,1}$ of a genus $g$ surface $\Sigma_{g,1}$ with one boundary component act on the homology $H_*(F_{n}(\Sigma_{g,1});\mathbb{Q})$ of the $n^{th}$ ordered configuration space of the surface. We prove…

Let $S$ be a nonorientable surface of genus $g\ge 5$ with $n\ge 0$ punctures, and $\Mcg(S)$ its mapping class group. We define the complexity of $S$ to be the maximum rank of a free abelian subgroup of $\Mcg(S)$. Suppose that $S_1$ and…

Recently, Korkmaz established the lower bound of $3g - 2$ for the dimension of a faithful representation of the mapping class group of an orientable surface of genus $g \ge 3$. We raise this bound to $4g - 3$ in the setting of surfaces of…

Let $g\geq3$ and $n\geq0$, and let ${\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$ be the mapping class group of a surface of genus $g$ with $n$ boundary components. We prove that ${\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$ contains a unique subgroup of index $2^{g-1}(2^{g}-1)$ up to…

Given an oriented surface of positive genus with finitely many punctures, we classify the finite orbits of the mapping class group action on the moduli space of semisimple complex special linear two dimensional representations of the…

In many situations, the monodromy group of enumerative problems will be the full symmetric group. In this paper, we study a similar phenomenon on the rational curves in $|\mathcal{O}(1)|$ on a generic K3 surface of fixed genus over…

We give an exact formula for the dimension of the variety of homomorphisms from $S_g$ to $\mathit{any}$ semisimple real algebraic group, where $S_g$ is a surface group of genus $g \geq 2$.

Let $S$ be a regular minimal surface of general type over the field of complex numbers, and $\mathrm{Aut}_\mathbb{Q}(S)$ the subgroup of automorphisms acting trivially on $H^*(S,\mathbb{Q})$. It has been known since twenty years that…

Let $S_{g,1,p}$ be an orientable surface of genus $g$ with one boundary component and $p$ punctures. Let $\mathcal{M}_{g,1,p}$ be the mapping-class group of $S_{g,1,p}$ relative to the boundary. We construct homomorphisms…

We show that central extensions of the mapping class group $M_g$ of the closed orientable surface of genus $g$ by $\Z$ are residually finite. Further we give rough estimates of the largest $N=N_g$ such that homomorphisms from $M_g$ to SU(N)…

We show that the Hamiltonian Lagrangian monodromy group, in its homological version, is trivial for any weakly exact Lagrangian submanifold of a symplectic manifold. The proof relies on a sheaf approach to Floer homology given by a relative…

Let $M$ be a closed surface. By $\Homeo(M)$ we denote the group of orientation preserving homeomorphisms of $M$ and let $\MC(M)$ denote the Mapping class group. In this paper we complete the proof of the conjecture of Thurston that says…

Let $\Gamma$ be the mapping class group of an oriented surface $\Sigma$ of genus g with r boundary components. We prove that the first cohomology group $H^1(\Gamma, O(M_{SL(2, C)})^*)$ is non-trivial, where the coefficient module is the…

Let $F_g$ denote the closed orientable surface of genus $g$. What is the least order finite group, $G_g$, for which there is a homomorphism $\psi$ from $\pi_1(F_g)$ to $G_g$ so that no nontrivial simple closed curve on $F_g$ represents an…

We prove that the first integral cohomology of pure mapping class groups of infinite type genus one surfaces is trivial. For genus zero surfaces we prove that not every homomorphism to $\mathbb{Z}$ factors through a sphere with finitely…

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…

Let R be a compact, connected, orientable surface of genus g with p boundary components. Let C(R) be the complex of curves on R and Mod_R^* be the extended mapping class group of R. Suppose that either g = 2 and p > 1 or g > 2 and p >= 0.…

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…