Related papers: Separating subgroups of mapping class groups in ho…

For any positive integer $n$, we exhibit a cofinite subgroup $\Gamma_n$ of the mapping class group of a surface of genus at most two such that $\Gamma_n$ admits an epimorphism onto a free group of rank $n$. We conclude that…

Let $\Gamma$ be a discrete group of finite virtual cohomological dimension with certain finiteness conditions of the type satisfied by arithmetic groups. We define a representation ring for $\Gamma$, determined on its elements of finite…

Let $X$ be an algebraic surface with $\mathcal{L}$ an ample line bundle on $X$. Let $\Gamma(X, \mathcal{L})$ be the \emph{geometric monodromy} group associated to family of nonsingular curves in $X$ that are zero loci of sections of…

For a oriented genus g surface with one boundary component, S, the Torelli group is the group of orientation preserving homeomorphisms of S that induce the identity on homology. The Magnus representation of the Torelli group represents the…

We study the action of the mapping class group on the real homology of finite covers of a topological surface. We use the homological representation of the mapping class to construct a faithful infinite-dimensional representation of the…

For k >= 1, let Torelli_g^1(k) be the k-th term in the Johnson filtration of the mapping class group of a genus g surface with one boundary component. We prove that for all k, there exists some G_k >= 0 such that Torelli_g^1(k) is generated…

Let A denote either the automorphism group of the free group of rank n>=4 or the mapping class group of an orientable surface of genus n>=12 with at most 1 boundary component, and let G be either the subgroup of IA-automorphisms or the…

The Johnson filtration of the automorphism group of a free group is composed of those automorphisms which act trivially on nilpotent quotients of the free group. We compute cohomology classes as follows: (i) we analyze analogous classes for…

Let $\Gamma$ be a finite-index subgroup of the mapping class group of a closed genus $g$ surface that contains the Torelli group. For instance, $\Gamma$ can be the level $L$ subgroup or the spin mapping class group. We show that…

Let $\Gamma$ be a finitely presented group and $G$ a linear algebraic group over $\mathbb{R}$. A representation $\rho:\Gamma\rightarrow G(\mathbb{R})$ can be seen as an $\mathbb{R}$-point of the representation variety $\mathfrak{R}(\Gamma,…

The Magnus representation of the Torelli subgroup of the mapping class group of a surface is a homomorphism r: I_{g,1} -> GL_{2g}(Z[H]). Here H is the first homology group of the surface. This representation is not faithful; in particular,…

Let $\Gamma_g$ denote the orientation-preserving Mapping Class Group of the genus $g\geq 1$ closed orientable surface. In this paper we show that for fixed $g$, every finite group occurs as a quotient of a finite index subgroup of…

We prove that every term of the lower central series and Johnson filtrations of the Torelli subgroups of the mapping class group and the automorphism group of a free group are finitely generated in a stable range. This was originally proved…

We examine the Johnson filtration of the (outer) automorphism group of a finitely generated group. In the case of a free group, we find a surprising result: the first Betti number of the second subgroup in the Johnson filtration is finite.…

Let $n\le 5$ be an integer, and let $\Gamma$ be a finite group. We prove that if $\rho , \rho': \Gamma \to O(n)$ are two representations that are conjugate by an orientation-preserving diffeomorphism, then they are conjugate by an element…

In this paper, we briefly review some of the known results concerning the cohomological structures of the mapping class group of surfaces, the outer automorphism group of free groups, the diffeomorphism group of surfaces as well as various…

We first develop a general theory of Johnson filtrations and Johnson homomorphisms for a group $G$ acting on another group $K$ equipped with a filtration indexed by a "good" ordered commutative monoid. Then, specializing it to the case…

We study the algebraic property of the representation of the mapping class group of a closed oriented surface of genus 2 constructed by VFR Jones [Annals of Math. 126 (1987) 335-388]. It arises from the Iwahori-Hecke algebra representations…

Let $\Sigma$ be a surface whose interior admits a hyperbolic structure of finite volume. In this paper, we show that any infinite order mapping class acts with infinite order on the homology of some universal $k$--step nilpotent cover of…

Let $\Sigma_{g,n}$ be an orientable surface of genus $g$ with $n$ punctures. We study actions of the mapping class group of $\Sigma_{g,n}$ via Hodge-theoretic and arithmetic techniques. We show that if $$\rho: \pi_1(\Sigma_{g,n})\to…