Related papers: Block mapping class groups and their finiteness pr…

By recognizing them as fundamental groups of developable complexes of groups we prove that mapping class groups of compact orientable surfaces have finite asymptotic dimension.

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…

We show that the (topological) full group of a minimal pseudogroup over the Cantor set satisfies various rigidity phenomena of topological dynamical and combinatorial nature. Our main result applies to its possible homomorphisms into other…

We show that labelled Thompson groups and twisted Brin--Thompson groups are all acyclic. This allows us to prove several new embedding results for groups. First, every group of type $F_n$ embeds quasi-isometrically as a subgroup of an…

Let S be a surface and let Mod(S,K) be the mapping class group of S permuting a Cantor subset K of S. We prove two structure theorems for normal subgroups of Mod(S,K). (Purity:) if S has finite type, every normal subgroup of Mod(S,K) either…

A Beauville surface is a rigid complex surface of the form (C1 x C2)/G, where C1 and C2 are non-singular, projective, higher genus curves, and G is a finite group acting freely on the product. Bauer, Catanese, and Grunewald conjectured that…

Let S be a connected orientable surface with finitely many punctures, finitely many boundary components, and genus at least 6. Then any C^1 action of the mapping class group of S on the circle is trivial. The techniques used in the proof of…

This paper is a continuation of our 2005 paper on complex topology and its implication on invertibility (or non-invertibility). In this paper, we will try to classify the complexity of inversion into 3 different classes. We will use…

Hughes has defined a class of groups, which we call FSS (finite similarity structure) groups. Each FSS group acts on a compact ultrametric space by local similarities. The best-known example is Thompson's group V. Guided by previous work on…

The group of $\mathcal C^1$-diffeomorphisms of any sparse Cantor subset of a manifold is countable and discrete (possibly trivial). Thompson's groups come out of this construction when we consider central ternary Cantor subsets of an…

We state combinatorial formulas for hyperoctahedral group ($\mathfrak B_n$) character evaluations of the form $\chi( {{\widetilde C}_w}^{\negthickspace\negthickspace BC}\negthickspace(1))$, where ${{\widetilde…

Let $G$ be a finitely generated group acting faithfully and properly discontinuously by homeomorphisms on a planar surface $X \subseteq \mathbb{S}^2$. We prove that $G$ admits such an action that is in addition co-compact, provided we can…

We prove that the mapping class group of a surface obtained from removing a Cantor set from either the 2-sphere, the plane, or the interior of the closed 2-disk has no proper countable-index subgroups. The proof is an application of the…

Let K be a Cantor set embedded in the real line R. Following Funar and Neretin, we define the diffeomorphism group of K as the group of homeomorphisms of K which locally look like a diffeomorphism between two intervals of R.…

We show that branched coverings of surfaces of large enough genus arise as characteristic maps of braided surfaces that is, lift to embeddings in the product of the surface with $\mathbb R^2$. This result is nontrivial already for…

The Alexander method is a combinatorial tool used to determine when two elements of the mapping class group are equal. We extend the Alexander method to include the case of infinite-type surfaces. Versions of the Alexander method was proven…

This is a survey on the automorphism groups in various classes of affine algebraic surfaces and the algebraic group actions on such surfaces. Being infinite-dimensional, these automorphism groups share some important features of algebraic…

Denoting by $C_n(X)$ the configuration space of $n$ distinct points in $X$, with $X$ being either Euclidean $3$-space $\mathbb{E}^3$ or hyperbolic $3$-space $\mathbb{H}^3$ or $\mathbb{C}P^1$ , by $\mathscr{P}_{k,d}$ the vector space of…

For a finite group $D$, we study categorical factorisation homology on oriented surfaces equipped with principal $D$-bundles, which `integrates' a (linear) balanced braided category $\mathcal{A}$ with $D$-action over those surfaces. For…

There is a forgetful map from the mapping class group of a punctured surface to that of the surface with one fewer puncture. We prove that finitely generated purely pseudo-Anosov subgroups of the kernel of this map are convex cocompact in…