Related papers: On stable commutator length of non-filling curves …

Cooper-Manning and Louder gave examples of maps of surface groups to PSL(2,C) which are not injective, but are incompressible (i.e. no simple loop is in the kernel). We construct more examples with very simple certificates for their…

We study stable commutator length on mapping class groups of certain infinite-type surfaces. In particular, we show that stable commutator length defines a continuous function on the commutator subgroups of such infinite-type mapping class…

Let G be a group acting on a tree with cyclic edge and vertex stabilizers. Then stable commutator length (scl) is rational in G. Furthermore, scl varies predictably and converges to rational limits in so-called "surgery" families. This is a…

This paper has two parts, on Baumslag-Solitar groups and on general G-trees. In the first part we establish bounds for stable commutator length (scl) in Baumslag-Solitar groups. For a certain class of elements, we further show that scl is…

We show that the set $SCL^{rp}$ of stable commutator lengths on recursively presented groups equals the set of non-negative right-computable numbers. Hence all non-negative algebraic or computable numbers are in $SCL^{rp}$ and $SCL^{rp}$ is…

We study stable commutator length on free $\mathbb{Q}$-groups. We prove that every non-identity element has positive stable commutator length, and that the corresponding free group embeds isometrically. We deduce that a non-abelian free…

We establish a spectral gap for stable commutator length (scl) of integral chains in right-angled Artin groups (RAAGs). We show that this gap is not uniform, i.e. there are RAAGs and integral chains with scl arbitrarily close to zero. We…

We show that surface groups are flexibly stable in permutations. This is the first non-trivial example of a non-amenable flexibly stable group. Our method is purely geometric and relies on an analysis of branched covers of hyperbolic…

We give a new proof of a theorem of D. Calegari that says that the Cayley graph of a surface group with respect to any generating set lying in finitely many mapping class group orbits has infinite diameter. This applies, for instance, to…

There are noninjective maps from surface groups to limit groups that don't kill any simple closed curves. As a corollary, there are noninjective all-loxodromic representations of surface groups to SL(2,C) that don't kill any simple closed…

Let $\Gamma$ be a finite index subgroup of the mapping class group $MCG(\Sigma)$ of a closed orientable surface $\Sigma$, possibly with punctures. We give a precise condition (in terms of the Nielsen-Thurston decomposition) when an element…

We study the set $R$ of nonplanar rational curves of degree $d<q+2$ on a smooth Hermitian surface $X$ of degree $q+1$ defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic $p>0$, where $q$ is a power of $p$. We prove that $R$ is the…

We show that in any right-angled Artin group whose defining graph has chromatic number $k$, every non-trivial element has stable commutator length at least $1/(6k)$. Secondly, if the defining graph does not contain triangles, then every…

For any group, there is a natural (pseudo-)norm on the vector space B1 of real (group) 1-boundaries, called the stable commutator length norm. This norm is closely related to, and can be thought of as a relative version of, the Gromov…

We study stable commutator length (scl) in free products via surface maps into a wedge of spaces. We prove that scl is piecewise rational linear if it vanishes on each factor of the free product, generalizing the main result in Danny…

We establish a close connection between stable commutator length in free groups and the geometry of sails (roughly, the boundary of the convex hull of the set of integer lattice points) in integral polyhedral cones. This connection allows…

We characterize helix surfaces (constant angle surfaces) in the special linear group $\mathrm{SL}(2,\r)$. In particular, we give an explicit local description of these surfaces in terms of a suitable curve and a 1-parameter family of…

This note provides an alternate account of Calegari's rationality theorem for stable commutator length in free groups.

Stable commutator length scl_G(g) of an element g in a group G is an invariant for group elements sensitive to the geometry and dynamics of G. For any group G acting on a tree, we prove a sharp bound scl_G(g)>=1/2 for any g acting without…

Consider the scheme parametrizing non-constant morphisms from a fixed projective curve to a projective surface. There is a rational map between this scheme and the Chow variety of $1$-cycles on the surface. We prove that, if the curve is…