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Let $\Gamma$ be the fundamental group of a surface of finite type and Comm$(\Gamma)$ be its abstract commensurator. Then Comm$(\Gamma)$ contains the solvable Baumslag--Solitar groups $\langle a ,b : a b a^{-1} = b^n \rangle$ for any $n >…

Surface groups are known to be the Poincar\'e Duality groups of dimension two since the work of Eckmann, Linnell and M\"uller. We prove a prosolvable analogue of this result that allows us to show that surface groups are profinitely (and…

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…

Twin groups are planar analogues of Artin braid groups and play a crucial role in the Alexander-Markov correspondence for the isotopy classes of immersed circles on the 2-sphere without triple and higher intersections. These groups admit…

In this paper we construct a homomorphism of the affine braid group $Br_n^{aff}$ in the convolution algebra of the equivariant matrix factorizations on the space $\overline{\mathcal{X}}_2=\mathfrak{b}_n\times GL_n\times\mathfrak{n}_n$…

We show that every subgroup of the mapping class group MCG(S) of a compact surface S is either virtually abelian or it has infinite dimensional second bounded cohomology. As an application, we give another proof of the…

Let $S$ and $X$ be two connected topological surfaces without boundary, and assume that $S$ is either of infinite type or has negative Euler characteristic. In this paper, we prove that if $p:S\rightarrow X$ is a fully ramified branched…

We show that each of the Artin groups of type $B_n$ and $D_n$ can be presented as a semidirect product $F \rtimes {\cal B}_n$, where $F$ is a free group and ${\cal B}_n$ is the $n$-string braid group. We explain how these semidirect product…

Anosov representations $\rho$ of a hyperbolic group $\Gamma$ into a semisimple Lie group $G$ are known to admit cocompact domains of discontinuity in flag varieties $G/Q$, endowing the compact quotient manifolds $M_\rho$ with a…

A group $\Gamma$ is said to be periodic if for any $g$ in $\Gamma$ there is a positive integer $n$ with $g^n=id$. We first prove that a finitely generated periodic group acting on the 2-sphere $\SS^2$ by $C^1$-diffeomorphisms with a finite…

The braided Thompson group $\mathcal B$ is an asymptotic mapping class group of a sphere punctured along the standard Cantor set, endowed with a rigid structure. Inspired from the case of finite type surfaces we consider a Hatcher-Thurston…

This is a summary of some of the basic facts about flat 2-orbifold groups, otherwise known as 2-dimensional crystallographic groups. We relate the geometric and topological presentations of these groups, and consider structures…

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 B_n be the braid group on n > 3 strands. We prove that B_n modulo its center is co-Hopfian. We then show that any injective endomorphism of B_n is geometric in the sense that it is induced by a homeomorphism of a punctured disk. We…

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…

For non-abelian simple objects in a unitary modular category, the density of their braid group representations, the #P-hard evaluation of their associated link invariants, and the BQP-completeness of their anyonic quantum computing models…

We consider mapping class groups \Gamma(M) = pi_0 Diff(M fix \partial M) of smooth compact simply connected oriented 4-manifolds M bounded by a collection of 3-spheres. We show that if M contains CP^2 (with either orientation) as a…

For any minimal compact complex surface S with n=b_2(S)>0 containing global spherical shells (GSS) we study the effectiveness of the 2n parameters given by the n blown up points. There exists a family of surfaces with GSS which contains as…

In this paper we describe the structure of a group of conjugating automorphisms $C_n$ of free group and prove that this structure is similar to the structure of a braid group $B_n$ with $n>1$ strings. We find the linear representation of…

Let $M$ be complete flat pseudo-Riemannian homogeneous manifold and $\Gamma\subset\Iso(\RR^n_s)$ its fundamental group. We show that $M$ is a trivial fiber bundle $G/\Gamma\to M\to\RR^{n-k}$, where $G$ is the Zariski closure of $\Gamma$ in…