Related papers: Problems, Questions, and Conjectures about Mapping…
We consider finite-sheeted, regular, possibly branched covering spaces of compact surfaces with boundary and the associated liftable and symmetric mapping class groups. In particular, we classify when either of these subgroups coincides…
These expository notes are dedicated to the study of the topology of configuration spaces of manifolds. We give detailed computations of many invariants, including the fundamental group of the configuration spaces of $\mathbb{R}^2$, the…
We compute the topological mapping class group of every compact, simply connected, topological 4-manifold. This was previously only known in the closed case. If the 4-manifold is smooth, we deduce an analogous description of the stable…
In this paper we study the homology and cohomology of confguration spaces of two distinct particles on a graph. Our main tool is intersection theory for cycles in graphs. We obtain an explicit description of the cohomology algebra of the…
Let $S$ be a compact orientable surface, and $\Mod(S)$ its mapping class group. Then there exists a constant $M(S)$, which depends on $S$, with the following property. Suppose $a,b \in \Mod(S)$ are independent (i.e., $[a^n,b^m]\not=1$ for…
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…
For a fixed marked surface $S$, we construct polynomial bounds on the periodic and preperiodic lengths of the maximal splitting sequences of a projectively invariant measured train track. We give two consequences of these bounds. Firstly,…
The theme of this survey is that subgroups of the mapping class group of a finite type surface S can be studied via the geometric/dynamical properties of their action on the Thurston compactification of the Teichmuller space of S, just as…
We introduce an operation that measures the self intersections of paths on a surface. As applications, we give a criterion of the realizability of a generalized Dehn twist, and derive a geometric constraint on the image of the Johnson…
In previous work we constructed twisted representations of mapping class groups of surfaces, depending on a choice of representation $V$ of the Heisenberg group $\mathcal{H}$. For certain $V$ we were able to untwist these mapping class…
Assuming that every hyperbolic group is residually finite, we prove the congruence subgroup property for mapping class groups of hyperbolic surfaces of finite type. Under the same assumption, it follows that profinitely equivalent…
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.
Following Thurston's geometrisation picture in dimension three, we study geometric manifolds in a more general setting in arbitrary dimensions, with respect to the following problems: (i) The existence of maps of non-zero degree (domination…
In this survey, we discuss a series of linearization problems--for Poisson structures, Lie algebroids, and Lie groupoids. The last problem involves a conjecture on the structure of proper groupoids. Attempting to prove this by the method of…
This paper is a survey of some properties of the braid groups and related groups that lead to questions on mapping class groups.
We show that the pure mapping class group is uniformly perfect for a certain class of infinite type surfaces with noncompact boundary components. We then combine this result with recent work in the remaining cases to give a complete…
Lecture notes of an algebraic geometry graduate course. The topics covered are as follows. Cohomology: ext sheaves and groups, cohomology with support, local cohomology, local duality. Duality: relative duality, Cohen-Macaulay schemes.…
Thurston's fibered face theory allows us to partition the set of pseudo-Anosov mapping classes on different compact oriented surfaces into subclasses with related dynamical behavior. This is done via a correspondence between the rational…
We consider Thompson's groups from the perspective of mapping class groups of surfaces of infinite type. This point of view leads us to the braided Thompson groups, which are extensions of Thompson's groups by infinite (spherical) braid…
We introduce a cohomology set for groups defined by algebraic difference equations and show that it classifies torsors under the group action. This allows us to compute all torsors for large classes of groups. We also develop some tools for…