Related papers: The normal closure of a bounding pair map in its m…
Justin Lanier and the authors recently determined the group normally generated by a single bounding pair map of genus $n$. We related this subgroup with the Chillingworth subgroup and the Casson--Morita's $d$ map. In this paper, we extend…
We give a new proof of the theorem of Birman-Powell that the Torelli subgroup of the mapping class group of a closed orientable surface of genus at least 3 is generated by simple homeomorphisms known as bounding pair maps. The key…
Let {a,b} and {c,d} be two pairs of bounding simple closed curves on an oriented surface which intersect nontrivialy. We prove that if these pairs are invariant under the action of an orientation reversing involution, then the corresponding…
The contraction of the image of the Johnson homomorphism is called the Chillingworth class. In this paper, we derive a combinatorial description of the Chillingworth class for Putman's subsurface Torelli groups. We also prove the naturality…
In this article, we study the normal generation of the mapping class group. We first show that a mapping class is a normal generator if its restriction on the invariant subsurface normally generates the (pure) mapping class group of the…
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 Chillingworth subgroup of the mapping class group of a compact oriented surface of genus $g$ with one boundary component is defined as the subgroup whose elements preserve nonvanishing vector fields on the surface up to homotopy. In…
We show that the normal closure of any periodic element of the mapping class group of a non-orientable surface whose order is greater than 2 contains the commutator subgroup, which for $g\geq 7$ is equal to the twist subgroup, and provide…
We extend certain homomorphisms defined on the higher Torelli subgroups of the mapping class group to crossed homomorphisms defined on the entire mapping class group. In particular, for every $k\geq 2$, we construct a crossed homomorphism…
These are the lecture notes for my course at the 2011 Park City Mathematics Graduate Summer School. The first two lectures covered the basics of the Torelli group and the Johnson homomorphism, and the third and fourth lectures discussed the…
We provide a simple criterion for an element of the mapping class group of a closed surface to have normal closure equal to the whole mapping class group. We apply this to show that every nontrivial periodic mapping class that is not a…
We introduce machinery to allow ``cut-and-paste''-style inductive arguments in the Torelli subgroup of the mapping class group. In the past these arguments have been problematic because restricting the Torelli group to subsurfaces gives…
In this paper we give an exposition of Dennis Johnson's work on the first homology of the Torelli groups and show how it can be applied, alone and in concert with Saito's theory of Hodge modules, to study the geometry of moduli spaces of…
We construct the first examples of normal subgroups of mapping class groups that are isomorphic to non-free right-angled Artin groups. Our construction also gives normal, non-free right-angled Artin subgroups of other groups, such as braid…
We construct the first known examples of nontrivial, normal, all pseudo-Anosov subgroups of mapping class groups of surfaces. Specifically, we construct such subgroups for the closed genus two surface and for the sphere with five or more…
Proving a conjecture of Dennis Johnson, we show that the Torelli subgroup of the mapping class group has a finite generating set whose size grows cubically with respect to the genus of the surface. Our main tool is a new space called the…
For any positive integer $n$, we exhibit a cofinite subgroup $\Gamma_n$ of the mapping class group of a surface of genus at most two such that $\Gamma_n$ admits an epimorphism onto a free group of rank $n$. We conclude that…
We study the algebraic property of the representation of the mapping class group of a closed oriented surface of genus 2 constructed by VFR Jones [Annals of Math. 126 (1987) 335-388]. It arises from the Iwahori-Hecke algebra representations…
An orientation is defined on a family of curve graphs on which the Torelli group acts. It is shown that the resulting signed stable length of an element of the Torelli group is a cohomology class. This cohomology class is half the dual of…
We prove that the handlebody subgroup of the Torelli group of an orientable surface is generated by genus one BP-maps. As an application, we give a normal generating set for the handlebody subgroup of the level $d$ mapping class group of an…