Related papers: Finiteness of mapping class groups and Heegaard di…

We consider the problem of determining whether the union of two infinite matroids is a matroid. We introduce a superclass of the finitary matroids, the nearly finitary matroids, and prove that the union of two nearly finitary matroids is a…

For a simply-connected closed manifold $X$ of $\dim X \neq 4$, the mapping class group $\pi_0(\mathrm{Diff}(X))$ is known to be finitely generated. We prove that analogous finite generation fails in dimension 4. Namely, we show that there…

Say that a finite group $G$ is mixable if a product of random elements, each chosen independently from two options, can distribute uniformly on $G$. We present conditions and obstructions to mixability. We show that $2$-groups, the…

In his paper "Finite groups have many conjugacy classes" (J. London Math. Soc (2) 46 (1992), 239-249), L. Pyber proved the to date best general lower bounds for the number of conjugacy classes of a finite group in terms of the order of the…

We study maximal distances in the commuting graphs of matrix algebras defined over algebraically closed fields. In particular, we show that the maximal distance can be attained only between two nonderogatory matrices. We also describe…

We compute the topological mapping class group of every compact, simply connected, topological 4-manifold. This was previously only known in the closed case. If the 4-manifold is smooth, we deduce an analogous description of the stable…

We prove that in dimensions not equal to 4, 5, or 7, the homology and homotopy groups of the classifying space of the topological group of diffeomorphisms of a disk fixing the boundary are finitely generated in each degree. The proof uses…

We survey recent work ranging around the question in how far a group, or a property of a group, is determined by the set of finite quotient groups. Our focus lies on $S$-arithmetic groups, branch groups, and their relatives.

We investigate representations of mapping class groups of surfaces that arise from the untwisted Drinfeld double of a finite group G, focusing on surfaces without marked points or with one marked point. We obtain concrete descriptions of…

It has been proved recently by Moreto and Craven that the order of a finite group is bounded in terms of the largest multiplicity of its irreducible character degrees. A conjugacy class version of this result was proved for solvable groups…

We show that for every positive integer $n$ there exists a simple group that is of type $\mathrm{F}_{n-1}$ but not of type $\mathrm{F}_n$. For $n\ge 3$ these groups are the first known examples of this kind. They also provide infinitely…

Haken showed that the Heegaard splittings of reducible 3-manifolds are reducible, that is, a reducing 2-sphere can be found which intersects the Heegaard surface in a single simple closed curve. When the genus of the "interesting" surface…

We introduce asymptotically rigid mapping class groups of handlebodies and determine their finiteness properties, which vary depending on the space of ends of the underlying handlebody. As it turns out, in some cases, the homology of these…

Let $f$ be the gluing map of a Heegaard splitting of a 3-manifold $W$. The goal of this paper is to determine the information about $W$ contained in the image of $f$ under the symplectic representation of the mapping class group. We prove…

We construct a family of finite special 2-groups which have commuting graph of increasing diameter

This paper grew out of an attempt to find a suitable finite sheeted covering of an aspherical 3-manifold so that the cover either has infinite or trivial first homology group. With this motivation we define a new class of groups. These…

Suppose $\Gamma$ is a finite group acting freely on $S^{n}$ ($n\geqslant 3$ being odd) and $M$ is any closed oriented $n$-manifold. We show that, given an integer $k$, the set $\deg^{-1}(k)$ of based homotopy classes of mappings with degree…

We define orbifold mapping class groups (with marked points) and study them using their action on certain orbifold analogs of arcs and simple closed curves. Moreover, we establish a Birman exact sequence for suitable subgroups of orbifold…

The finite groups having an indecomposable polynomial invariant whose degree is at least half of the order of the group are classified. Apart from four sporadic exceptions these are exactly the groups having a cyclic subgroup of index at…

The girth of a finitely generated group G is the supremum of the girth of Cayley graphs for G over all finite generating sets. Let G be a finitely generated subgroup of the mapping class group Mod(S), where S is a compact orientable…