Related papers: From braid groups to mapping class groups

We show the triviality of representations of the mapping class group of a genus $g$ surface in $GL(n,C), Diff(S^2)$ and $Homeo(T^2)$ when appropriate restrictions on the genus $g$ and the size of $n$ hold. For example, if $S_g$ is a surface…

We show that branched coverings of surfaces of large enough genus arise as characteristic maps of braided surfaces that is, lift to embeddings in the product of the surface with $\mathbb R^2$. This result is nontrivial already for…

For every $n\ge 2$, the {\em surface Houghton group} $\mathcal B_n$ is defined as the asymptotically rigid mapping class group of a surface with exactly $n$ ends, all of them non-planar. The groups $\mathcal B_n$ are analogous to, and in…

We continue the study of low dimensional linear representations of mapping class groups of surfaces initiated by Franks--Handel and Korkmaz. We consider $(2g+1)$-dimensional complex linear representations of the pure mapping class groups of…

We ask if any finite type generalized braid group is a subgroup of some classical Artin braid group. We define a natural map from a given finite type generalized braid group to a classical braid group and ask if this map is an injective…

We study homological representations of mapping class groups, including the braid groups. These arise from the twisted homology of certain configuration spaces, and come in many different flavours. Our goal is to give a unified general…

We consider the Birman-Hilden inclusion $\varphi\colon\mathfrak{Br}_{2g+1}\to\Gamma_{g,1}$ of the braid group into the mapping class group of an orientable surface with boundary, and prove that $\varphi$ is stably trivial in homology with…

The disjoint union of mapping class groups of surfaces forms a braided monoidal category $\mathcal M$, as the disjoint union of the braid groups $\mathcal B$ does. We give a concrete, and geometric meaning of the braiding $\beta_{r,s}$ in…

We show that the smallest non-cyclic quotients of braid groups are symmetric groups, proving a conjecture of Margalit. Moreover we recover results of Artin and Lin about the classification of homomorphisms from braid groups on n strands to…

Let $\Sigma_g$ denote the closed orientable surface of genus $g$ and fix an arbitrary simplicial triangulation of $\Sigma_g$. We construct and study a natural surjective group homomorphism from the surface braid group on $n$ strands on…

Let $p:\Sigma'\to\Sigma$ be a finite Galois cover, possibly branched, with Galois group $G$. We are interested in the structure of the cohomology of $\Sigma'$ as a module over $G$. We treat the cases of branched and unbranched covers…

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…

This paper is devoted to the proof of a structural theorem, concerning certain homomorphic images of Artin braid group on $n$ strands in finite symmetric groups. It is shown that any one of these permutation groups is an extension of the…

Motivated by the Lawrence-Krammer-Bigelow representations of the classical braid groups, we study the homology of unordered configurations in an orientable genus-$g$ surface with one boundary component, over non-commutative local systems…

Let $\Gamma_{g,1}^m$ be the mapping class group of the orientable surface $\Sigma_{g,1}^m$ of genus $g$ with one parametrised boundary curve and $m$ permutable punctures; when $m=0$ we omit it from the notation. Let…

Totally symmetric sets are a recently introduced tool for studying homomorphisms between groups. In this paper, we give full classifications of totally symmetric sets in certain families of groups and bound their sizes in others. As a…

Herein we prove that if $M$ is a compact oriented Riemann surface of genus $g$, and $M^{[n]}$ is the classifying space of $n$ distinct, unordered points on $M$, then the kernel of the map $\pi_1(M^{[n]})\to H_1(M)$ is generated by…

In this paper we compute the homotopy groups of the symplectomorphism groups of the 3-, 4- and 5-point blow-ups of the projective plane (considered as monotone symplectic Del Pezzo surfaces). Along the way, we need to compute the homotopy…

Let $g$ be a non-negative integer, $\Sigma _g$ a closed orientable surface of genus $g$, and $\mathcal{M}_g$ its mapping class group. We classify all the group homomorphisms $\pi _1(\Sigma _g)\to G$ up to the action of $\mathcal{M}_g$ on…

We prove that braid group representations associated to braided fusion categories and mapping class group representations associated to modular fusion categories are always semisimple. The proof relies on the theory of extensions in…