Related papers: Configuration space, moduli space and 3-fold cover…

We introduce and analyze the characteristic foliation induced by a contact structure on a branched surface, in particular a branched standard spine of a 3-manifold. We extend to (fairly general) singular foliations of branched surfaces the…

We consider the Birman-Hilden inclusion $\varphi\colon\mathfrak{Br}_{2g+1}\to\Gamma_{g,1}$ of the braid group into the mapping class group of an orientable surface with boundary, and prove that $\varphi$ is stably trivial in homology with…

We study several geometric and group theoretical problems related to Kodaira fibrations, to more general families of Riemann surfaces, and to surface-by-surface groups. First we provide constraints on Kodaira fibrations that fiber in more…

We say that a cover of surfaces S -> X has the Birman--Hilden property if the subgroup of the mapping class group of X consisting of mapping classes that have representatives that lift to S embeds in the mapping class group of S modulo the…

When $\pi:\widetilde{\Sigma}\rightarrow D^2$ is a cover of the disc branched over $n$ marked points, the braid group $B_n$ acts on the disc by homeomorphisms fixing the marked points setwise. A braid $\beta$ \textit{lifts} if there is a…

In the 1970s Joan Birman and Hugh Hilden wrote several papers on the problem of relating the mapping class group of a surface to that of a cover. We survey their work, give an overview of the subsequent developments, and discuss open…

Let M be a surface, perhaps with boundary, and either compact, or with a finite number of points removed from the interior of the surface. We consider the inclusion i: F\_n(M) --\textgreater{} M^n of the nth configuration space F\_n(M) of M…

We investigate nicely embedded H--holomorphic maps into stable Hamiltonian three--manifolds. In particular we prove that such maps locally foliate and satisfy a no--first--intersection property. Using the compactness results of…

The orbifold braid groups of two dimensional orbifolds were defined in [1] (arXiv:math/9907194) to understand certain Artin groups as subgroups of some suitable orbifold braid groups. We studied orbifold braid groups in some more detail in…

Given a family of groups admitting a braided monoidal structure (satisfying mild assumptions) we construct a family of spaces on which the groups act and whose connectivity yields, via a classical argument of Quillen, homological stability…

We give a new proof of the theorem of Birman-Powell that the Torelli subgroup of the mapping class group of a closed orientable surface of genus at least 3 is generated by simple homeomorphisms known as bounding pair maps. The key…

We develop a new approach to Lagrangian-Floer gluing. The construction of the gluing map is based on the intersection theory in some Hilbert manifold of paths $\mathcal{P} $. We consider some moduli spaces of perturbed holomorphic curves…

We study injective homomorphisms between big mapping class groups of infinite-type surfaces. First, we construct (uncountably many) examples of surfaces without boundary whose (pure) mapping class groups are not co-Hopfian; these are the…

In classical covering space theory, a covering map induces an injection of fundamental groups. This paper reveals a dual property for certain quotient maps having connected fibers, with applications to orbit spaces of vector fields and leaf…

Components of the Moduli space of sheaves on a K3 surface are parametrized by a lattice; the (algebraic) Mukai lattice. Isometries of the Mukai lattice often lift to symplectic birational isomorphisms of the collection of components. An…

We consider the space of embeddings of finitely many circles that bound disks in non-positively curved surfaces. We index the connected components of this space with finite rooted trees and show that the connected components are classifying…

We study birational morphisms between smooth projective surfaces that respect a given Poisson structure, with particular attention to induced birational maps between the (Poisson) moduli spaces of sheaves on those surfaces. In particular,…

In all possible cases, we prove that local embeddings between two curve complexes whose complexities do not increase from domain to codomain are induced by surface homeomorphism. This is our first main result. From this we can deduce our…

The $d$-fold ($d \geq 3$) branched coverings on a disk give an infinite family of nongeometric embeddings of braid groups into mapping class groups. We, in this paper, give new explicit expressions of these braid group representations into…

We prove similar theorems concerning the structure of bundles involving complements of fiber-type hyperplane arrangements and orbit configuration spaces. These results facilitate analysis of the fundamental groups of these spaces, which may…