Related papers: The Birman-Hilden theory

Suppose that Y is a cyclic cover of projective space branched over a hyperplane arrangement D, and that U is the complement of the ramification locus in Y. The first theorem implies that the Beilinson-Hodge conjecture holds for U if certain…

A relative Picard theory in the context of graded manifolds is introduced. A Berezinian calculus and a theory of connections over SUSY-curves are systematically developed, and used to prove a Gauss-Bonnet theorem for line bundles in that…

Commutative K-theory, a cohomology theory built from spaces of commuting matrices, has been explored in recent work of Adem, G\'{o}mez, Gritschacher, Lind, and Tillman. In this article, we use unstable methods to construct explicit…

We apply representation theory to study the homology of equivariant Dehn-fillings of a given finite, regular cover of a compact 3-manifold with boundary a torus. This yields a polynomial which gives the rank of the part of the homology…

In the present paper we give a historical account -ranging from classical to modern results- of the problem of rolling two Riemannian manifolds one on the other, with the restrictions that they cannot instantaneously slip or spin one with…

We define new bordism and spin bordism invariants of certain subgroups of the mapping class group of a surface. In particular, they are invariants of the Johnson filtration of the mapping class group. The second and third terms of this…

This article proposes an effective criterion for lifting automorphisms along regular coverings of graphs, with the covering transformation group being any finite abelian group.

Let M be a compact, connected surface, possibly with a finite set of points removed from its interior. Let d,n be positive integers, and let N be a d-fold covering space of M. We show that the covering map induces an embedding of the n-th…

In 1947, in the paper "Theory of Braids", Artin raised the question of whether isotopy and homotopy of braids on the disk coincide. Twenty seven years later, Goldsmith answered his question: she proved that in fact the group structures are…

For each family of Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in toric varieties, Batyrev has proposed a possible mirror partner (which is also a family of Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces). We explain a natural construction of the isomorphism between certain Hodge…

A Platonic surface is a Riemann surface that underlies a regular map and so we can consider its vertices, edge-centres and face-centres. A symmetry (anticonformal involution) of the surface will fix a number of simple closed curves which we…

Submanifolds of finite type were introduced by the author during the late 1970s. The first results on this subject had been collected in author's book [Total mean curvature and sub manifolds of finite type, World Scientific, NJ, 1984]. A…

For a branched cover between two closed orientable surfaces, the Riemann-Hurwitz formula relates the Euler characteristics of the surfaces, the total degree of the cover, and the total length of the partitions of the degree given by the…

We detail the theory of Discrete Riemann Surfaces. It takes place on a cellular decomposition of a surface, together with its Poincar\'e dual, equipped with a discrete conformal structure. A lot of theorems of the continuous theory follow…

The object of this expository work is to try to unveil the topological/geometric intuition behind the theory of free groups and their automorphism and outer automorphism groups. The method we follow is to focus on a series of problems in…

Covering spaces are a fundamental tool in algebraic topology because of the close relationship they bear with the fundamental groups of spaces. Indeed, they are in correspondence with the subgroups of the fundamental group: this is known as…

Lyubashenko's construction associates representations of mapping class groups Map_{g,n} of Riemann surfaces of any genus g with any number n of holes to a factorizable ribbon category. We consider this construction as applied to the…

We construct a covering of Culler-Vogtmann Outer space by the Teichmuller spaces of punctured surfaces. By considering the equivariant homology for the action of Out(F_n) on this covering, we construct a spectral sequence converging to the…

We are concerned with mapping class groups of surfaces with nonempty boundary. We present a very natural method, due to Thurston, of finding many different left orderings of such groups. The construction involves equipping the surface with…

Various connections between the theory of permutation groups and the theory of topological groups are described. These connections are applied in permutation group theory and in the structure theory of topological groups. The first draft of…