Related papers: Pillar switchings and acyclic embedding in mapping…

Suppose that $X$ and $Y$ are surfaces of finite topological type, where $X$ has genus $g\geq 6$ and $Y$ has genus at most $2g-1$; in addition, suppose that $Y$ is not closed if it has genus $2g-1$. Our main result asserts that every…

We show that the morphisms from the braid group with n strands in the mapping class group of a surface with a possible non empty boundary, assuming that its genus is smaller or equal to n/2 are either cyclic morphisms (their images are…

We explicitly construct new subgroups of the mapping class groups of an uncountable collection of infinite-type surfaces, including, but not limited to, free groups, Baumslag-Solitar groups, mapping class groups of other surfaces, and a…

We construct an action of the braid group B_{2g+2} on the free group F_{2g} extending an action of B_4 on F_2 introduced earlier by Reutenauer and the author. Our action induces a homomorphism from B_{2g+2} into the symplectic modular group…

Let G be a compact Lie group or a complex reductive affine algebraic group. We explore induced mappings between G-character varieties of surface groups by mappings between corresponding surfaces. It is shown that these mappings are…

Let $\Sigma_g$ denote the closed orientable surface of genus $g$ and fix an arbitrary simplicial triangulation of $\Sigma_g$. We construct and study a natural surjective group homomorphism from the surface braid group on $n$ strands on…

This paper concerns rigidity of the mapping class groups. We show that any homomorphism $\phi:{\rm Mod}_g\to {\rm Mod}_h$ between mapping class groups of closed orientable surfaces with distinct genera $g>h$ is trivial if $g\geq 3$ and has…

A planar stuffed map is an embedding of a graph into the 2-sphere $S^{2}$, considered up to orientation-preserving homeomorphisms, such that the complement of the graph is a collection of disjoint topologically connected components that are…

Let $0 \in \Gamma$ and $\Gamma \setminus \{0\}$ be a subgroup of the complex numbers of unit modulus. Define $\mathcal{H}_{n}(\Gamma)$ to be the set of all $n\times n$ Hermitian matrices with entries in $\Gamma$, whose diagonal entries are…

Let $PB_n(S_{g,p})$ be the pure braid group of a genus $g>1$ surface with $p$ punctures. In this paper we prove that any surjective homomorphism $PB_n(S_{g,p})\to PB_m(S_{g,p})$ factors through one of the forgetful homomorphisms. We then…

The point-pushing subgroup P(S) of the mapping class group Mod(S) of a surface with marked point is an embedding of \pi_1(S) given by pushing the marked point around loops. We prove that for g>=3, the subgroup P(S) is the unique normal,…

Let B_n be the braid group on n > 3 strands. We prove that B_n modulo its center is co-Hopfian. We then show that any injective endomorphism of B_n is geometric in the sense that it is induced by a homeomorphism of a punctured disk. We…

In this paper we define a $\mathbf{QP}^1$-valued class function on the mapping class group $\mathcal{M}_{g,2}$ of a surface $\Sigma_{g,2}$ of genus $g$ with two boundary components. Let $E$ be a $\Sigma_{g,2}$ bundle over a pair of pants…

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,…

Bidouble covers $\pi : S \mapsto Q$ of the quadric Q are parametrized by connected families depending on four positive integers a,b,c,d. In the special case where b=d we call them abc-surfaces. Such a Galois covering $\pi$ admits a small…

We study smooth proper embeddings of compact orientable surfaces in compact orientable $4$-manifolds and elements in the mapping class group of that surface which are induced by diffeomorphisms of the ambient $4$-manifolds. We call such…

We study a class of $\Z^{d}$-substitutive subshifts, including a large family of constant-length substitutions, and homomorphisms between them, i.e., factors modulo isomorphisms of $\Z^{d}$. We prove that any measurable factor map and even…

A group $H \cong {\mathbb Z}_{k}^{2g}$, where $g,k \geq 2$ are integers, of conformal automorphisms of a closed Riemann surface $S$ is called a $(g,k)$-Fermat group if it acts freely with quotient $S/H$ of genus $g$. We study some…

Let $G_{g,b}$ be the set of all uni/trivalent graphs representing the combinatorial structures of pant decompositions of the oriented surface of genus $g$ with $b$ boundary components. We describe the set $A_{g,b}$ of all automorphisms of…

We study the classifying space of a twisted loop group $L_{\sigma}G$ where $G$ is a compact Lie group and $\sigma$ is an automorphism of $G$ of finite order modulo inner automorphisms. Equivalently, we study the $\sigma$-twisted adjoint…