Related papers: On the structure of the top homology group of the …

The action of the mapping class group $\mathrm{Mod}_g$ of an oriented surface $\Sigma_g$ on the lower central series of $\pi_1(\Sigma_g)$ defines the descending filtration in $\mathrm{Mod}_g$ called the Johnson filtration. The first two…

Let $s$ be a fixed hyperelliptic involution of the closed, oriented genus $g$ surface $\Sigma_g$. The hyperelliptic Torelli group $\mathcal{SI}_g$ is the subgroup of the mapping class group $\mathrm{Mod}(\Sigma_g)$ consisting of elements…

Let $S_g$ be a closed, oriented surface of genus $g$, and let $\operatorname{Mod}(S_g)$ denote its mapping class group. The Torelli group $\mathcal{I}_g$ is the subgroup of $\operatorname{Mod}(S_g)$ consisting of mapping classes that act…

For a connected orientable hyperbolic surface $S$ without boundary and of finite topological type, the Johnson kernel ${\mathcal K}(S)$ is the subgroup of the mapping class group of $S$ generated by Dehn twists about separating simple…

The Johnson kernel is the subgroup of the mapping class group of a surface generated by Dehn twists along bounding simple closed curves, and has the second Johnson homomorphism as a free abelian quotient. In terms of the representation…

We prove that the first complex homology of the Johnson subgroup of the Torelli group $T_g$ is a non-trivial unipotent $T_g$-module for all $g\ge 4$ and give an explicit presentation of it as a $\Sym H_1(T_g,\C)$-module when $g\ge 6$. We do…

In the early 1980's, Johnson defined a homomorphism $\mathcal{I}_{g}^1\to\bigwedge^3 H_1(S_{g},\mathbb{Z})$, where $\mathcal{I}_{g}^1$ is the Torelli group of a closed, connected and oriented surface of genus $g$ with a boundary component…

We prove that the cohomological dimension of the Torelli group for a closed connected orientable surface of genus g at least 2 is equal to 3g-5. This answers a question of Mess, who proved the lower bound and settled the case of g=2. We…

In the 1970s, Birman-Craggs-Johnson used Rochlin's invariant for homology 3-spheres to construct a remarkable surjective homomorphism sigma:I_{g,1}->B_3, where I_{g,1} is the Torelli group and B_3 is a certain F_2-vector space of Boolean…

Let $\mathcal{I}_g$ be the Torelli group of an oriented closed surface $S_g$ of genus $g$, that is, the kernel of the action of the mapping class group on the first integral homology group of $S_g$. We prove that the $k$th integral homology…

For a compact orientable surface $\Sigma_{g,1}$ of genus $g$ with one boundary component and for an odd prime number $p$, we study the homology of the unordered configuration spaces…

Let $\Sigma_g^b$ be a compact oriented surface of genus $g$ with $b$ boundary components, where $b\in\{0,1\}$. The Johnson kernel $\mathcal{K}_g^b$ is the subgroup of the mapping class group $\mathrm{Mod}(\Sigma_g^b)$ generated by Dehn…

We give a new proof of a celebrated theorem of Dennis Johnson that asserts that the kernel of the Johnson homomorphism on the Torelli subgroup of the mapping class group is generated by separating twists. In fact, we prove a more general…

The Johnson kernel is the subgroup of the mapping class group of a closed oriented surface that is generated by Dehn twists along separating simple closed curves. The rational abelianization of the Johnson kernel has been computed by Dimca,…

Let $\Sigma_{g,*}$ be a once-punctured oriented surface of genus $g$. We study the action of the mapping class group $\Gamma_{g,*}$ on the $n^{th}$ rational cohomology of the configuration space $\text{Conf}_n(\Sigma_{g,*})$ of injections…

The Torelli group of a genus $g$ oriented surface $\Sigma_g$ is the subgroup $\mathcal{I}_g$ of the mapping class group ${\rm Mod}(\Sigma_g)$ consisting of all mapping classes that act trivially on ${\rm H}_1(\Sigma_g, \mathbb{Z})$. The…

Let K(S) be the subgroup of the extended mapping class group, Mod(S), generated by Dehn twists about separating curves. In our earlier paper, we showed that Comm(K(S)) and Aut(K(S)) are both isomorphic to Mod(S) when S is a closed,…

In the late 1980's, it was shown that the Casson invariant appears in the difference between the two filtrations of the Torelli group: the lower central series and the Johnson filtration, and that its core part was identified with the…

Let $\Sigma_g \to E \to \Sigma_h$ be a surface bundle over a surface with monodromy representation $\rho: \pi_1 \Sigma_h \to \operatorname{Mod}(\Sigma_g)$ contained in the Torelli group $\mathcal{I}_g$. In this paper we express the cup…

In this paper, we study the kernels of the $\mathrm{SO}(3)$-Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev quantum representations $\rho_p$ of mapping class groups of closed orientable surfaces $\Sigma_g$ of genus $g.$ We investigate the question whether the…