Related papers: Point pushing, homology, and the hyperelliptic inv…
The hyperelliptic Torelli group is the subgroup of the mapping class group consisting of elements that act trivially on the homology of the surface and that also commute with some fixed hyperelliptic involution. The authors and Putman…
We prove that the hyperelliptic Torelli group is generated by Dehn twists about separating curves that are preserved by the hyperelliptic involution. This verifies a conjecture of Hain. The hyperelliptic Torelli group can be identified with…
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…
Let $s$ be a fixed hyperelliptic involution of the closed, oriented genus $g$ surface $\Sigma_g$. The hyperelliptic Torelli group $\mathcal{SI}_g$ is the subgroup of the mapping class group $\mathrm{Mod}(\Sigma_g)$ consisting of elements…
By Torelli topology the author understands aspects of the topology of surfaces (potentially) relevant to the study of Torelli groups. The present paper is devoted to a new approach to the results of W. Vautaw about Dehn multi-twists in…
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…
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…
We study the first homology group of the mapping class group and Torelli group with coefficients in the first rational homology group of the universal abelian cover of the surface. We prove two contrasting results: for surfaces with one…
In previous work we constructed twisted representations of mapping class groups of surfaces, depending on a choice of representation $V$ of the Heisenberg group $\mathcal{H}$. For certain $V$ we were able to untwist these mapping class…
We give a new proof of a celebrated theorem of Dennis Johnson that asserts that the kernel of the Johnson homomorphism on the Torelli subgroup of the mapping class group is generated by separating twists. In fact, we prove a more general…
The Magnus representation of the Torelli subgroup of the mapping class group of a surface is a homomorphism r: I_{g,1} -> GL_{2g}(Z[H]). Here H is the first homology group of the surface. This representation is not faithful; in particular,…
Let $S_g$ be a closed, oriented surface of genus $g$, and let $\operatorname{Mod}(S_g)$ denote its mapping class group. The Torelli group $\mathcal{I}_g$ is the subgroup of $\operatorname{Mod}(S_g)$ consisting of mapping classes that act…
Let {a,b} and {c,d} be two pairs of bounding simple closed curves on an oriented surface which intersect nontrivialy. We prove that if these pairs are invariant under the action of an orientation reversing involution, then the corresponding…
Let SI(S_g) denote the hyperelliptic Torelli group of a closed surface S_g of genus g. This is the subgroup of the mapping class group of S_g consisting of elements that act trivially on H_1(S_g;Z) and that commute with some fixed…
The reduced Burau representation $V_n$ of the braid group $B_n$ is obtained from the action of $B_n$ on the homology of an infinite cyclic cover of the disc with $n$ punctures. The group homology $H_*(B_n;V_n)$ of braid groups with…
For a nonorientable surface, the twist subgroup is an index 2 subgroup of the mapping class group. It is generated by Dehn twists about two-sided simple closed curves. In this paper, we study involution generators of the twist subgroup. We…
Infinite presentations are given for all of the higher Torelli groups of once-punctured surfaces. In the case of the classical Torelli group, a finite presentation of the corresponding groupoid is also given, and finite presentations of the…
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)…
The Torelli group $\mathcal T(X)$ of a closed smooth manifold $X$ is the subgroup of the mapping class group $\pi_0(\mathrm{Diff}^+(X))$ consisting of elements which act trivially on the integral cohomology of $X$. In this note we give…
We prove that both the hyperelliptic mapping class group and the extended hyperelliptic mapping class group are generated by two torsion elements. We also compute the index of the subgroup of the hyperelliptic mapping class group which is…