Related papers: Weakly framed surface configurations, Heisenberg h…

We study a wide range of homologically-defined representations of surface braid groups and of mapping class groups of surfaces, including the Lawrence-Bigelow representations of the classical braid groups. These representations naturally…

Let $\Sigma_{g,n}$ be an orientable surface of genus $g$ with $n$ punctures. We study actions of the mapping class group of $\Sigma_{g,n}$ via Hodge-theoretic and arithmetic techniques. We show that if $$\rho: \pi_1(\Sigma_{g,n})\to…

We prove a homological stability theorem for the subgroup of the mapping class group acting as the identity on some fixed portion of the first homology group of the surface. We also prove a similar theorem for the subgroup of the mapping…

We show that there is a type-preserving homomorphism from the fundamental group of the figure-eight knot complement to the mapping class group of the thrice-punctured torus. As a corollary, we obtain infinitely many commensurability classes…

We investigate homological stability for the space of sections of Fano fibrations over curves in the context of weak approximation, and establish it for projective bundles, as well as for conic and quadric surface bundles over curves.

This paper is about cohomology of mapping class groups from the perspective of arithmetic groups. For a closed surface $S$ of genus $g$, the mapping class group $Mod(S)$ admits a well-known arithmetic quotient $Mod(S)\rightarrow Sp(2g, Z)$,…

In this paper we complete the topological description of the space of representations of the fundamental group of a punctured surface in SL(2,R) with prescribed behavior at the punctures and nonzero Euler number, following the strategy…

It has been known since the time of Nielsen that the mapping class group $\text{Mod}_{g,1}$ of a surface of genus $g$ and one puncture acts faithfully by homeomorphisms on the circle. In this note, we show that this standard representation…

For groups of a topological origin, such as braid groups and mapping class groups, an important source of interesting and highly non-trivial representations is given by their actions on the twisted homology of associated spaces; these are…

We study actions of finite groups on moduli spaces of stable holomorphic vector bundles and relate the fixed-point sets of those actions to representation varieties of certain orbifold fundamental groups.

The mapping class group of an orientable surface, which records its symmetries up to isotopy, plays a central role in low-dimensional topology. This chapter explores the foundational problem of determining minimal generating sets for these…

We derive an obstruction to representing a homology class of a symplectic 4-manifold by an embedded, possibly disconnected, symplectic surface.

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…

Given a finite modular tensor category, we associate with each compact surface with boundary a cochain complex in such a way that the mapping class group of the surface acts projectively on its cohomology groups. In degree zero, this action…

In this paper, we deal with stable homology computations with twisted coefficients for mapping class groups of surfaces and of 3-manifolds, automorphism groups of free groups with boundaries and automorphism groups of certain right-angled…

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 prove that many normal subgroups of the extended mapping class group of a surface with punctures are geometric, that is, that their automorphism groups and abstract commensurator groups are isomorphic to the extended mapping class group.…

Let G be a connected, compact, semisimple Lie group. It is known that for a compact closed orientable surface $\Sigma$ of genus $l >1$, the order of the group $H^2(\Sigma,\pi_1(G))$ is equal to the number of connected components of the…

We construct a graph complex calculating the integral ho- mology of the bordered mapping class groups. We compute the ho- mology of the bordered mapping class groups of various surfaces. Using the circle action on this graph complex, we…

Let $S$ be a connected non-orientable surface with negative Euler characteristic and of finite type. We describe the possible closures in $\mathcal M\mathcal L$ and $\mathcal P\mathcal M\mathcal L$ of the mapping class group orbits of…