Related papers: Braid groups, mapping class groups and their homol…

We compare three different ways of defining group cohomology with coefficients in a crossed-module: 1) explicit approach via cocycles; 2) geometric approach via gerbes; 3) group theoretic approach via butterflies. We discuss the case where…

Following the completion of the algebraic construction of the Poisson wild character varieties (B.--Yamakawa, 2015) one can consider their natural deformations, generalising both the mapping class group actions on the usual (tame) character…

We construct a family of infinite simple groups that we call \emph{twisted Brin-Thompson groups}, generalizing Brin's higher-dimensional Thompson groups $sV$ ($s\in\mathbb{N}$). We use twisted Brin-Thompson groups to prove a variety of…

Let $G$ be a nonabelian, simple group with a nontrivial conjugacy class $C \subseteq G$. Let $K$ be a diagram of an oriented knot in $S^3$, thought of as computational input. We show that for each such $G$ and $C$, the problem of counting…

The deep connection among braids, knots and topological physics has provided valuable insights into studying topological states in various physical systems. However, identifying distinct braid groups and knot topology embedded in…

According to seminal work of Kontsevich, the unstable homology of the mapping class group of a surface can be computed via the homology of a certain lie algebra. In a recent paper, S. Morita analyzed the abelianization of this lie algebra,…

The reduced Burau representation $V_n$ of the braid group $B_n$ is obtained from the action of $B_n$ on the homology of an infinite cyclic cover of the disc with $n$ punctures. The group homology $H_*(B_n;V_n)$ of braid groups with…

In this note we show that any homomorphism from a pure surface braid group to a torsion-free hyperbolic group either has a cyclic image or factors through a forgetful map. This extends and gives a new proof of an earlier result of the…

The present article is a continuation of QA/1303.4046, where we discussed the classification of quantum groups with quasi-classical limit $\mathfrak{g}$ and introduced a theory of Belavin-Drinfeld cohomology associated to any…

We define a quasihomomorphism from braid groups to the concordance group of knots and examine its properties and consequences of its existence. In particular, we provide a relation between the stable four ball genus in the concordance group…

The cohomology of the configuration space of n points in R^3 admits a symmetric group action and has been shown to be isomorphic to the regular representation. One way to prove this is by defining an S^1-action whose fixed point set is the…

We prove that the twisted K-homology of a simply connected simple Lie group G of rank n is an exterior algebra on n-1 generators tensor a cyclic group. We give a detailed description of the order of this cyclic group in terms of the…

The braid groups B_n can be defined as the mapping class group of the n-punctured disc. The Lawrence-Krammer representation of the braid group B_n is the induced action on a certain twisted second homology of the space of unordered pairs of…

We apply Majid's transmutation procedure to Hopf algebra maps $H \to \mathbb C[T]$, where $T$ is a compact abelian group, and explain how this construction gives rise to braided Hopf algebras over quotients of $T$ by subgroups that are…

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…

We show that several classes of groups G of PL-homeomorphisms of the real line admit non-trivial homomorphisms from G to the additive group of reals that are fixed by every automorphism of G. The classes of groups enjoying the stated…

The spaces of triangulations of a given manifold have been widely studied. The celebrated theorem of Pachner~\cite{Pachner} says that any two triangulations of a given manifold can be connected by a sequence of bistellar moves, or Pachner…

We prove that, under a simple condition on the cohomology ring, every closed 4-manifold has mod 2 Seiberg-Witten simple type. This result shows that there exists a large class of topological 4-manifolds such that all smooth structures have…

We produce new cohomology for non-uniform arithmetic lattices $\Gamma<SO(p,q)$ using a technique of Millson--Raghunathan. From this, we obtain new characteristic classes of manifold bundles with fiber a closed $4k$-dimensional manifold $M$…

Let a torus $T$ act on a symplectic manifold $(M,\omega)$ with moment map $\phi$. We say that the Hamiltonian $T$-manifold $(M,\omega,\phi)$ has complexity one if $\frac{1}{2} \dim M - \dim T = 1$, and that it is K\"ahler if it admits an…