Related papers: Generating the mapping class group by three involu…

Let $S(n)$, for $n \in \mathbb{N}$, be the infinite-type surface of infinite genus with $n$ ends, each accumulated by genus. Although the mapping class groups of these surfaces are not countably generated,they are Polish groups and hence…

We show that central extensions of the mapping class group $M_g$ of the closed orientable surface of genus $g$ by $\Z$ are residually finite. Further we give rough estimates of the largest $N=N_g$ such that homomorphisms from $M_g$ to SU(N)…

We study $6$-transposition groups, i.e. groups generated by a normal set of involutions $D$, such that the order of the product of any two elements from $D$ does not exceed $6$. We classify most of the groups generated by $3$ elements from…

Let $S$ be a nonorientable surface of genus $g\ge 5$ with $n\ge 0$ punctures, and $\Mcg(S)$ its mapping class group. We define the complexity of $S$ to be the maximum rank of a free abelian subgroup of $\Mcg(S)$. Suppose that $S_1$ and…

We construct a minimal generating set of the level 2 mapping class group of a nonorientable surface of genus $g$, and determine its abelianization for $g\ge4$.

In this work we compute the first integral cohomology of the pure mapping class group of a non-orientable surface of infinite topological type and genus at least 3. To this purpose, we also prove several other results already known for…

We report on the computation of the integral homology of the mapping class group of genus g surfaces with one boundary curve and m punctures, when 2g + m is smaller than 6. In particular, it includes the genus 2 case with no or one…

We show that the normal closure of any periodic element of the mapping class group of a non-orientable surface whose order is greater than 2 contains the commutator subgroup, which for $g\geq 7$ is equal to the twist subgroup, and provide…

The extended mapping class group of a surface $\Sigma$ is defined to be the group of isotopy classes of (not necessarily orientation-preserving) homeomorphisms of $\Sigma$. We are able to show that the extended mapping class group of an…

We investigate the problem of when big mapping class groups are generated by involutions. Restricting our attention to the class of self-similar surfaces, which are surfaces with self-similar ends space, as defined by Mann and Rafi, and…

We compute, for each genus $g\geq 0$, the generating function $L_g\equiv L_g(t;p_1,p_2,\dots)$ of (labelled) bipartite maps on the orientable surface of genus $g$, with control on all face degrees. We exhibit an explicit change of variables…

Let $S_g$ denote the closed orientable surface of genus $g$. We construct exponentially many mapping class group orbits of collections of $2g+1$ simple closed curves on $S_g$ which pairwise intersect exactly once, extending a result of the…

The mapping class group ${\Gamma}_g^ 1$ of a closed orientable surface of genus $g \geq 1$ with one marked point can be identified, by the Nielsen action, with a subgroup of the group of orientation preserving homeomorphims of the circle.…

We prove that the mapping class group of a closed surface acts ergodically on connected components of the representation variety corresponding to a connected compact Lie group.

We prove that the minimal nontrivial finite quotient group of the mapping class group M_g of a closed orientable surface of genus g is the symplectic group PSp(2g,Z_2), for g = 3 and 4 (this might remain true, however, for arbitrary genus g…

Let $g \ge 2$ and assume that we are given a genus $g$ Heegaard splitting of a closed orientable $3$-manifold with the distance greater than $2g+2$. We prove that the mapping class group of the once-stabilization of such a Heegaard…

Let $S_{g}$ denote the closed orientable surface of genus $g$. In joint work with Huang, the first author constructed exponentially-many (in $g$) mapping class group orbits of pairs of simple closed curves whose complement is a single…

A topological group $G$ is topologically normally generated if there exists $g \in G$ such that the normal closure of $g$ is dense in $G$. Let $S$ be a tame, infinite type surface whose mapping class group $\mathrm{Map}(S)$ is generated by…

Let $S_g$ be the closed oriented surface of genus $g \geq 0$, and let $\mathrm{Mod}(S_g)$ be the mapping class group of $S_g$. For $g\geq 2$, we develop an algorithm to obtain a finite generating set for the liftable mapping class group…

Recently, John Franks and Michael Handel proved that, for $g\geq 3$ and $n\leq 2g-4$, every homomorphism from the mapping class group of an orientable surface of genus $g$ to $\GL (n,\C)$ is trivial. We extend this result to $n\leq 2g-1$,…