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The Cremona group $\mathrm{Bir}(\mathbb{P}^2_\mathbb{C})$ is the group of birational self-maps of $\mathbb{P}^2_\mathbb{C}$. Using the action of $\mathrm{Bir}(\mathbb{P}^2_\mathbb{C})$ on the Picard-Manin space of $\mathbb{P}^2_\mathbb{C}$…

The configuration space $\text{UC}(n,p\times q)$ of $n$ unlabelled non-overlapping unit squares in a $p\times q$ rectangle is known to recover the homotopy type of the classical configuration space of $n$ unlabelled points in the plane,…

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…

We define pseudo-Garside groups and prove a theorem about them parallel to Garside's result on the word problem for the usual braid groups. The main novelty is that the set of simple elements can be infinite. We introduce a group B=B(Z^n)…

We study algebraic structure of the $\lambda$-polycyclic monoid $P_{\lambda}$ and its topologizations. We show that the $\lambda$-polycyclic monoid for an infinite cardinal $\lambda\geqslant 2$ has similar algebraic properties so has the…

We study a novel type of braid groups on a closed orientable surface $\Sigma$. These are fundamental groups of certain manifolds that are hybrids between symmetric products and configuration spaces of points on $\Sigma$; a class of examples…

In this paper, we make use of the relations between the braid and mapping class groups of a compact, connected, non-orientable surface N without boundary and those of its orientable double covering S to study embeddings of these groups and…

Smooth Freund-Rubin backgrounds of eleven-dimensional supergravity of the form AdS_4 x X^7 and preserving at least half of the supersymmetry have been recently classified. Requiring that amount of supersymmetry forces X to be a spherical…

Given an elliptic fibration $\pi : M \to S^2$ with singular locus $\Delta \subseteq S^2$, let $\operatorname{Br}(\pi) < \operatorname{Mod}(S^2,\Delta)$ be the subgroup of the spherical braid group consisting of those braids that lift to a…

A Cantor surface $\mathcal C_d$ is a non-compact surface obtained by gluing copies of a fixed compact surface $Y^d$ (a block), with $d+1$ boundary components, in a tree-like fashion. For a fixed subgroup $H<Map(Y^d)$ , we consider the…

In this note we show that any homomorphism from a pure surface braid group to a torsion-free hyperbolic group either has a cyclic image or factors through a forgetful map. This extends and gives a new proof of an earlier result of the…

An $n$-dimensional closed flat manifold is said to be of diagonal type if the standard representation of its holonomy group $G$ is diagonal. An $n$-dimensional Bieberbach group of diagonal type is the fundamental group of such a manifold.…

We derive a formula for the unramified Brauer group of a general class of rationally connected fourfolds birational to conic bundles over smooth threefolds. We produce new examples of conic bundles over P^3 where this formula applies and…

With the motivation of giving a more precise estimation of the quantum Brauer group of a Hopf algebra $H$ over a field $k$ we construct an exact sequence containing the quantum Brauer group of a Hopf algebra in a certain braided monoidal…

We prove that the group of birational transformations of a Del Pezzo fibration of degree 3 over a curve is not simple, by giving a surjective group homomorphism to a free product of infinitely many groups of order 2. As a consequence we…

Let $\Gamma$ be a word hyperbolic group with a cyclic JSJ decomposition that has only rigid vertex groups, which are all fundamental groups of closed surface groups. We show that any group $H$ quasi-isometric to $\Gamma$ is abstractly…

We disprove a conjecture stating that the integral cohomology of any crystallographic group Z^n \rtimes Z_m is given by the cohomology of Z_m with coefficients in the cohomology of the group Z^n, by providing a complete list of…

We present a generalization of the Dehornoy-Brin braided Thompson group $BV_2$ that uses recursive braids. Our new groups are denoted by $BV_{n,r}(H)$, for all $n\geq 2,r\geq 1$ and $H \leq \mathcal{B}_n$, where $\mathcal{B}_n$ is the braid…

If $\Gamma$ is a finitely generated Fuchsian group such that its derived subgroup $\Gamma'$ is co-compact and torsion free, then $S={\mathbb H}^{2}/\Gamma'$ is a closed Riemann surface of genus $g \geq 2$ admitting the abelian group…

Dehn twists around simple closed curves in oriented surfaces satisfy the braid relations. This gives rise to a group theoretic from the braid group to the mapping class group. We prove here that this map is trivial in stable homology with…