Related papers: Representations of surface groups with finite mapp…
Let $\Sigma_{g,n}$ be the orientable genus $g$ surface with $n$ punctures, where $2-2g-n<0$. Let $$\rho: \pi_1(\Sigma_{g,n})\to GL_m(\mathbb{C})$$ be a representation. Suppose that for each finite covering map $f: \Sigma_{g', n'}\to…
Let $\Sigma_{g,n}$ be an orientable surface of genus $g$ with $n$ punctures. We study actions of the mapping class group of $\Sigma_{g,n}$ via Hodge-theoretic and arithmetic techniques. We show that if $$\rho: \pi_1(\Sigma_{g,n})\to…
We prove that for each sufficiently complicated orientable surface $S$, there exists an infinite image linear representation $\rho$ of $\pi_1(S)$ such that if $\gamma\in\pi_1(S)$ is freely homotopic to a simple closed curve on $S$, then…
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…
By considering appropriate finite covering spaces of closed non-orientable surfaces, we construct linear representations of their mapping class group which have finite index image in certain big arithmetic groups.
We show that any twisted Dijkgraaf-Witten representation of a mapping class group of an orientable, compact surface with boundary has finite image. This generalizes work of Etingof, Rowell and Witherspoon showing that the braid group images…
Let $S$ be a closed oriented surface and $G$ a finite group of orientation preserving automorphisms of $S$ whose orbit space has genus at least $2$. There is a natural group homomorphism from the $G$-centralizer in $Diff^+(S)$ to the…
We produce a sequence of finite dimensional representations of the fundamental group $\pi_1(S)$ of a closed surface where all simple closed curves act with finite order, but where each non--simple closed curve eventually acts with infinite…
For any finite type connected surface $S$, we give an infinite presentation of the fundamental group $\pi_1(S,\ast)$ of $S$ based at an interior point $\ast\in{S}$ whose generators are represented by simple loops. When $S$ is…
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…
There exist right angled Artin groups $A$ such that the isomorphism problem for finitely presented subgroups of $A$ is unsolvable, and for certain finitely presented subgroups the conjugacy and membership problems are unsolvable. It follows…
Given a finite group $G$ acting on a surface $S$, the centralizer of G in the mapping class group $\textrm{Mod}(S)$ has a natural representation given by its action on the homology $H_1(S; \mathbb{Q})$. We consider the question of whether…
We show that certain representations over fields with positive characteristic of groups having CAT(0) fixed point property ${\rm F}\mathcal{B}_{\widetilde{A}_n}$ have finite image. In particular, we obtain rigidity results for…
Let $N_{g,n}$ denote the nonorientable surface of genus $g$ with $n$ boundary components and $M(N_{g,n})$ its mapping class group. We obtain an explicit finite presentation of $M(N_{g,n})$ for $n=0,1$ and all $g$ such that $g+n>3$.
Let $p:S\to S_g$ be a finite $G$-covering of a closed surface of genus $g\geq 1$ and let $B$ its branch locus. To this data, it is associated a representation of a finite index subgroup of the mapping class group…
We give a finite presentation of the mapping class group of an oriented (possibly bounded) surface of genus greater or equal than 1, considering Dehn twists on a very simple set of curves.
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 establish that, given $\Sigma$ a compact orientable surface, and $G$ a finitely presented one-ended group, the set of copies of $G$ in the mapping class group $\mathcal{MCG}(\Sigma)$ consisting of only pseudo-anosov elements except…
We provide new constraints for algebro-geometric subgroups of mapping class groups, namely images of fundamental groups of curves under complex algebraic maps to the moduli space of smooth curves. Specifically, we prove that the restriction…
Let X be a 2-sphere with n punctures. We classify all conjugacy classes of Zariski-dense representations $$\rho: \pi_1(X)\to SL_2(\mathbb{C})$$ with finite orbit under the mapping class group of X, such that the local monodromy at one or…