Related papers: Non virtually solvable subgroups of mapping class …

For $\Sigma$ an orientable surface of finite topological type having genus at least 3 (possibly closed or possibly with any number of punctures or boundary components), we show that the mapping class group $Mod(\Sigma)$ has no faithful…

We prove that if $\Sigma$ is a closed surface of genus at least 3 and $G$ is a split real semisimple Lie group of rank at least $3$ acting faithfully by isometries on a symmetric space $N$, then there exists a Hitchin representation…

We prove that for every closed, connected, orientable, irreducible 3-manifold, there exists an alternating group A_n which is not the topological symmetry group of any graph embedded in the manifold. We also show that for every finite group…

Let $\Gamma$ be a finitely generated nilpotent group and let G be a complex reductive algebraic group. The representation variety $\mathrm{Hom}(\Gamma,G)$ and the character variety $\mathrm{Hom}(\Gamma,G)//G$ each carry a natural topology,…

Let $\Gamma$ be the fundamental group of a closed orientable surface of genus at least two. Consider the composition of a uniformly random element of $\mathrm{Hom}(\Gamma,S_n)$ with the $(n-1)$-dimensional irreducible representation of…

We give two applications of our prior work toward the Putman-Wieland conjecture. First, we deduce a strengthening of a result of Markovi\'c-To\v{s}i\'c on virtual mapping class group actions on the homology of covers. Second, let $g\geq 2$…

Let $\Gamma$ be a nonuniform lattice acting on real hyperbolic n-space. We show that in dimension greater than or equal to 4, the volume of a representation is constant on each connected component of the representation variety of $\Gamma$…

We prove that various subgroups of the mapping class group $Mod(\Sigma)$ of a surface $\Sigma$ are at least exponentially distorted. Examples include the Torelli group (answering a question of Hamenstadt), the "point-pushing" and surface…

Let G be a connected, compact, semisimple Lie group. It is known that for a compact closed orientable surface $\Sigma$ of genus $l >1$, the order of the group $H^2(\Sigma,\pi_1(G))$ is equal to the number of connected components of the…

Non-transitive subgroups of the orthogonal group play an important role in the non-Euclidean geometry. If $G$ is a closed subgroup in the orthogonal group such that the orbit of a single Euclidean unit vector does not cover the (Euclidean)…

Let V be a symplectic vector space of dimension 2n. Given a partition \lambda with at most n parts, there is an associated irreducible representation S_{[\lambda]}(V) of Sp(V). This representation admits a resolution by a natural complex…

We provide a homological model for a family of quantum representations of mapping class groups arising from non-semisimple TQFTs (Topological Quantum Field Theories). Our approach gives a new geometric point of view on these…

We prove that every finitely generated, virtually solvable minimax group can be expressed as a homomorphic image of a virtually torsion-free, virtually solvable minimax group. This result enables us to generalize a theorem of Ch. Pittet and…

We show that elementary amenable groups, which have a bound on the orders of their finite subgroups, admit a finite dimensional model for the classifying space with virtually cyclic isotropy.

Let $\Gamma$ be either the mapping class group of a closed surface of genus $\geq 2$, or the automorphism group of a free group of rank $\geq 3$. Given any homological representation $\rho$ of $\Gamma$ corresponding to a finite cover, and…

Let $M$ be a compact surface with boundary. We are interested in the question of how a group action on $M$ permutes a finite invariant set $X \subset int(M)$. More precisely, how the algebraic properties of the induced group of permutations…

We show that the probability that a finitely supported random walk on a non-elementary subgroup of the the mapping class group gives a non-pseudo-Anosov element decays exponentially in the length of the random walk. More generally, we show…

We construct examples of groups showing that virtual solvability and the property of being virtually torsion-free are not preserved by bi-Lipschitz maps and hence by quasi-isometries.

Let G=SO(n,1) and Gamma a geometrically finite Zariski dense subgroup of G which is contained in an arithmetic subgroup of G. Denoting by Gamma(q) the principal congruence subgroup of Gamma of level q, and fixing a positive number \lambda_0…

A virtual endomorphism of a group G is a homomorphism f from H into G where H is a subgroup of G of finite index m. The triple (G,H,f) produces a state-closed (or, self-similar) representation t of G on the 1-rooted m-ary tree. This paper…