Related papers: The Birman-Hilden theory

The space of topological decompositions into triangulations of a surface has a natural graph structure where two triangulations share an edge if they are related by a so-called flip. This space is a sort of combinatorial Teichm\"uller space…

Motivated by the work of Birman about the relationship between mapping class groups and braid groups, we discuss the relationship between the orbit braid group and the equivariant mapping class group on the closed surface $M$ with a free…

A correspondence, by way of Heegaard splittings, between closed oriented 3-manifolds and pairs of surjections from a surface group to a free group has been studied by Stallings, Jaco, and Hempel. This correspondence, by way of trisections,…

The hyperelliptic mapping class group has been studied in various contexts within topology and algebraic geometry. What makes this study tractable is that there is a surjective map from the hyperelliptic mapping class group to a mapping…

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.

This article is based on a talk delivered at the RIMS--OCAMI Joint International Conference on Geometry Related to Integrable Systems in September, 2007. Its aim is to review a recent progress in the Hitchin integrable systems and character…

Let $\phi \in {\rm Mod}(\Sigma)$ be an arbitrary element of the mapping class group of a closed orientable surface $\Sigma$ of genus at least $2$. For any characteristic cover $\widetilde{\Sigma} \to \Sigma$ one can consider the linear…

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. We prove a Birman exact…

We discuss a number of open problems about mapping class groups of surfaces. In particular, we discuss problems related to linearity, congruence subgroups, cohomology, pseudo-Anosov stretch factors, Torelli subgroups, and normal subgroups.

This is a survey of Magnus representations with particular emphasis on their applications to mapping class groups and monoids (groups) of homology cobordisms of surfaces. In the first half, we begin by recalling the basics of the Fox…

Leighton's graph covering theorem states that a pair of finite graphs with isomorphic universal covers have a common finite cover. We provide a new proof of Leighton's theorem that allows generalizations; we prove the corresponding result…

This paper answers a question raised by Grothendieck in 1970 on the "Grothendieck closure" of an integral linear group and proves a conjecture of the first author made in 1980. This is done by a detailed study of the congruence topology of…

We define the notion of mirror of a Calabi-Yau manifold with a stable bundle in the context of type II strings in terms of supersymmetric cycles on the mirror. This allows us to relate the variation of Hodge structure for cohomologies…

Geometric structures on manifolds became popular when Thurston used them in his work on the geometrization conjecture. They were studied by many people and they play an important role in higher Teichm\"uller theory. Geometric structures on…

: Algebraic properties of orbifold models on arbitrary Riemann surfaces are investigated. The action of mapping class group transformations and of standard geometric operations is given explicitly. An infinite dimensional extension of the…

Finite-sheeted covering mappings onto compact connected groups are studied. It is shown that a finite-sheeted covering mapping from a connected Hausdorff topological space onto a compact connected abelian group G must be a homeomorphism…

This expository paper details the theory of rank one Higgs bundles over a closed Riemann surface X and their relationship to representations of the fundamental group of X. We construct an equivalence between the deformation theories of flat…

Let $\Sigma$ be a bounded surface. We prove the Dehn-Nielsen-Baer theorem for bounded surfaces to show that the mapping class group of $\Sigma$ is isomorphic to the automorphisms of the fundamental groupoid of $\Sigma$ that fix loops around…

This expository paper explores the interaction of group ordering with topological questions, especially in dimensions 2 and 3. Among the topics considered are surfaces, braid groups, 3-manifolds and their structures such as foliations and…

This survey paper is devoted to Riemannian manifolds with special holonomy. To any Riemannian manifold of dimension n is associated a closed subgroup of SO(n), the holonomy group; this is one of the most basic invariants of the metric. A…