Related papers: Mapping class groups of highly connected $(4k+2)$-…

For $n\geq 2$ we consider $(n-1)$-connected closed manifolds of dimension at most $(3n-2)$. We prove that away from a finite set of primes, the $p$-local homotopy groups of $M$ are determined by the dimension of the space of indecomposable…

For every $k \geq 2$ and $n \geq 2$ we construct $n$ pairwise homotopically inequivalent simply-connected, closed $4k$-dimensional manifolds, all of which are stably diffeomorphic to one another. Each of these manifolds has hyperbolic…

The symplectomorphism group of a 2-dimensional surface is homotopy equivalent to the orbit of a filling system of curves. We give a generalization of this statement to dimension 4. The filling system of curves is replaced by a decomposition…

We construct membrane homology groups $\h(M)$ associated with each compact connected oriented smooth manifold, and show that $\h(M)$ is matrix graded algebra.

We compute the homotopy groups of the spaces of self maps of Lie groups of rank 2, SU(3), Sp(2), and G_2. We use the cell structures of these Lie groups and the standard methods of homotopy theory.

We show that the classification up to homeomorphism of closed topological nonorientable 4-manifolds with fundamental group of order 2 due to Hambleton-Kreck-Teichner can be used to classify a large set of such 4-manifolds with cyclic…

We present examples of prequantizations over integral symplectic manifolds which admit infinitely many smoothly trivial contact mapping classes. These classes are given by the connected components of the strict contactomorphism group which…

Let k>2. We prove that the cotangent bundles of oriented homotopy (2k-1)-spheres S and S' are symplectomorphic only if the classes defined by S and S' agree up to sign in the quotient group of oriented homotopy spheres modulo those which…

This paper is about cohomology of mapping class groups from the perspective of arithmetic groups. For a closed surface $S$ of genus $g$, the mapping class group $Mod(S)$ admits a well-known arithmetic quotient $Mod(S)\rightarrow Sp(2g, Z)$,…

We present the concept of the topological symmetry group as a way to analyze the symmetries of non-rigid molecules. Then we characterize all of the groups which can occur as the topological symmetry group of an embedding of the complete…

The Torelli group, I(S_g), is the subgroup of the mapping class group consisting of elements that act trivially on the homology of the surface. There are three types of elements that naturally arise in studying I(S_g): bounding pair maps,…

In this note we give an explicit construction of Sasaki-Einstein metrics on a class of simply connected 7-manifolds with the rational cohomology of the 2-fold connected sum of $S^2\times S^5$. The homotopy types are distinguished by torsion…

We apply the theory of finite-type invariants of homology 3-spheres to investigate the structure of the Torelli group. We construct natural cocycles in the Torelli group and show that the lower central series quotients of the Torelli group…

In this paper, we survey recent works on the structure of the mapping class groups of surfaces mainly from the point of view of topology. We then discuss several possible directions for future research. These include the relation between…

It is shown, that the mapping class group of a surface of the genus g > 1 admits a faithful representation into the matrix group GL (6g-6, Z). The proof is based on a categorical correspondence between the Riemann surfaces and the so-called…

Closed (and simply-connected) manifolds whose dimensions are larger than 4 are central geometric objects in classical algebraic topology and differential topology. They have been classified via algebraic and abstract objects. On the other…

We calculate the rational cohomology of the classifying space of the diffeomorphism group of the manifolds $U_{g,1}^n:= \#^g(S^n \times S^{n+1})\setminus \mathrm{int}{D^{2n+1}}$, for large $g$ and $n$, up to approximately degree $n$. The…

Let M be a 4-manifold with residually finite fundamental group G having b_1(G) > 0. Assume that M carries a symplectic structure with trivial canonical class K = 0 in H^2(M). Using a theorem of Bauer and Li, together with some classical…

Let $g, n \geq 0$ and $\Sigma = \Sigma_{g, n}$ be a connected oriented surface of genus $g$ with $n$ punctures. The $\mathrm{SL}_2$-character variety of $\Sigma$ has a rigid relative automorphism group, whose elements fix each monodromies…

The class of special generic maps contains Morse functions with exactly two singular points, characterizing spheres topologically which are not $4$-dimensional and the $4$-dimensional unit sphere. This class is for higher dimensional…