Related papers: Hierarchically cocompact classifying spaces for ma…

We show that the {\it full} mapping class group of any orientable closed surface with punctures admits a cocompact classifying space for proper actions of dimension equal to its virtual cohomological dimension. This was proved for closed…

Let $S$ be a closed surface of genus at least $2$. For each maximal representation $\rho: \pi_1(S)\rightarrow\mathsf{Sp}(4,\mathbb{R})$ in one of the $2g-3$ exceptional connected components, we prove there is a unique conformal structure on…

In the present note we describe geometrically the homology classes in the total space of a surface bundle over a surface in terms of the holonomy map. We treat the cases where the base surface is closed or has one boundary component. We…

We obtain some classification result for the mapping class groups of compact orientable surfaces in terms of measure equivalence. In particular, the mapping class groups of different closed surfaces can not be measure equivalent. Moreover,…

Let $K$ be a global field of characteristic $p>0$. We study the cohomology of arithmetic subgroups $\Gamma $ of $SL_{n+1}(K)$ (with respect to a fixed place of $K$), under the hypothesis that these groups have no $p'$-torsion (any…

We compute rationally the topological (complex) K-theory of the classifying space BG of a discrete group provided that G has a cocompact G-CW-model for its classifying space for proper G-actions. For instance word-hyperbolic groups and…

In this paper we introduce an open-closed cobordism category with maps to a background space. We identify the classifying space of this category for certain classes of background space. The key ingredient is the homology stability of…

In this mostly expository article, we provide a new account of our proof with Minsky and Sisto that mapping class groups and Teichm\"uller spaces admit bicombings. More generally, we explain how the hierarchical hull of a pair of points in…

The mapping class group of a compact oriented surface of genus greater than one with boundary acts ergodically on connected components of the representation variety corresponding to a connected compact Lie group, for every choice of…

We strengthen the analogy between convex co-compact Kleinian groups and convex co-compact subgroups of the mapping class group of a surface (in the sense of B. Farb and L. Mosher).

We study the moduli spaces which classify smooth surfaces along with a complex line bundle. There are homological stability and Madsen--Weiss type results for these spaces (mostly due to Cohen and Madsen), and we discuss the cohomological…

We introduce and study a notion of relative 1-homotopy type for Sobolev maps from a surface to a metric space spanning a given collection of Jordan curves. We use this to establish the existence and local H\"older regularity of area…

This paper is a survey of the relationship between labelled configuration spaces, mapping class groups with marked points and function spaces. In particular, we collect calculations of the cohomology groups for the mapping class groups of…

Let $\mathrm{Mod}(S_g)$ be the mapping class group of the closed orientable surface of genus $g \geq 1$. For $k \geq 2$, we consider the standard $k$-sheeted regular cover $p_k: S_{k(g-1)+1} \to S_g$, and analyze the liftable mapping class…

Let $G$ be a group hyperbolic relative to a finite collection of subgroups $\mathcal P$. Let $\mathcal F$ be the family of subgroups consisting of all the conjugates of subgroups in $\mathcal P$, all their subgroups, and all finite…

We define the notion of {\em classifying space} of a topological stack and show that every topological stack \X has a classifying space X which is a topological space well-defined up to weak homotopy equivalence. Under a certain…

We study the Euler class of smooth orientable infinite-type surface bundles with a section. For many such surfaces, we show that this cohomology class is nontrivial, and that the behavior of its powers depends on the genus and the type of…

We investigate space curves with large cohomology. To this end we introduce curves of subextremal type. This class includes all subextremal curves. Based on geometric and numerical characterizations of curves of subextremal type, we show…

In this paper, we briefly review some of the known results concerning the cohomological structures of the mapping class group of surfaces, the outer automorphism group of free groups, the diffeomorphism group of surfaces as well as various…

We introduce the moduli space of marked, complete, Nielsen-convex hyperbolic structures on a surface of negative, but not necessarily finite, Euler characteristic. The emphasis is on infinite type surfaces, the aim being to study mapping…