Related papers: Generating the Mapping Class Group of a Nonorienta…
As another application of the degeneration methods of [V3], we count the number of irreducible degree $d$ geometric genus $g$ plane curves, with fixed multiple points on a conic $E$, not containing $E$, through an appropriate number of…
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 provide a simple criterion for an element of the mapping class group of a closed surface to have normal closure equal to the whole mapping class group. We apply this to show that every nontrivial periodic mapping class that is not a…
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…
We study invertible generating pairs of fundamental groups of graph manifolds, that is, pairs of elements (g,h) for which the map g --> g^{-1}, h --> h^{-1} extends to an automorphism. We show in particular that a graph manifold is of…
We prove a well known conjecture of Nikolai Ivanov which states that if $X$ is a surface of genus $\geq 3$ (with any number of punctures and boundary components), $\rm{Mod}(X)$ is the mapping class group of $X$, and $K < \rm{Mod}(X)$ is a…
A method is suggested for construction of quadrangulations of the closed orientable surface with given genus g and either (1) with given chromatic number or (2) with given order allowed by the genus g. In particular, N. Hartsfield and G.…
The purpose of this paper is to prove that if $G$ is a transitive permutation group of degree $n\geq 2$, then $G$ can be generated by $\lfloor cn/\sqrt{\log{n}}\rfloor$ elements, where $c:=\sqrt{3}/2$. Owing to the transitive group…
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…
An element $f$ of a group $G$ is reversible if it is conjugated in $G$ to its own inverse; when the conjugating map is an involution, $f$ is called strongly reversible. We describe reversible maps in certain groups of interval exchange…
We restrict our discussion to the orientable category. For $g > 1$, let $OE_g$ be the maximum order of a finite group $G$ acting on the closed surface $\Sigma_g$ of genus $g$ which extends over $(S^3, \Sigma_g)$, where the maximum is taken…
Given a set equipped with a transitive action of a group, we define the notion of an almost invariant coloring of the set. We consider the mapping class group orbit of a multicurve on a compact surface, and prove that in the case of genus…
On each nonorientable surface of odd genus $g \geq 5$, we give a mapping class whose dilatation on an invariant subsurface is the golden ratio.
A complex of incompressible surfaces in a handlebody is constructed so that it contains, as a subcomplex, the complex of curves of the boundary of the handlebody. For genus 2 handlebodies, the group of automorphisms of this complex is used…
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…
Any nontrivial homomorphism from the mapping class group of an orientable surface of genus $g\geq 3$ to $\GL(2g,\C)$ is conjugate to the standard symplectic representation. It is also shown that the mapping class group has no faithful…
We give an algorithm which computes a presentation for a subgroup, denoted $\AM_{g,1,p}$, of the automorphism group of a free group. It is known that $\AM_{g,1,p}$ is isomorphic to the mapping-class group of an orientable genus-$g$ surface…
We show that the mapping class group of a handlebody of genus at least 2 (with any number of marked points or spots) is exponentially distorted in the mapping class group of its boundary surface. The same holds true for solid tori with at…
We obtain a simple presentation of the hyperelliptic mapping class group $M^h(N)$ of a nonorientable surface N. As an application we compute the first homology group of $M^h(N)$ with coefficients in $H_1(N;Z)$.
Let $M_n := \mathbb{CP}^2 \# n\overline{\mathbb{CP}^2}$ for $0 \leq n \leq 8$ be the underlying smooth manifold of a degree $9-n$ del Pezzo surface. We prove three results about the mapping class group $\text{Mod}(M_n) :=…