Related papers: Geometric representations of the braid group on a …

The orbifold braid groups of two dimensional orbifolds were defined in [1] (arXiv:math/9907194) to understand certain Artin groups as subgroups of some suitable orbifold braid groups. We studied orbifold braid groups in some more detail in…

Every surface bundle with genus $g$ fiber has a canonical Heegaard splitting of genus $2g+1$. We classify the mapping class groups of such Heegaard splittings in the case when the surface bundle has a sufficiently complicated monodromy map.

Let T(N) be the subgroup of the mapping class group of a nonorientable surface N (possibly with punctures and/or boundary components) generated by twists about two-sided circles. We obtain a simple generating set for T(N). As an application…

In this paper we first show that many braid groups of low genus surfaces have their centers as direct factors. We then give a description of centralizers and normalizers of prime order elements in pure mapping class groups of surfaces with…

We describe presentations of braid groups of type ADE and show how these presentations are compatible with mutation of quivers, building on work of Barot and Marsh for Coxeter groups. In types A and D these presentations can be understood…

The mixed braid groups are the subgroups of Artin braid groups whose elements preserve a given partition of the base points. We prove that the centralizer of any braid can be expressed in terms of semidirect and direct products of mixed…

The Prym map assigns to each covering of curves a polarized abelian variety. In the case of unramified cyclic covers of curves of genus two, we show that the Prym map is ramified precisely on the locus of bielliptic covers. The key…

Complex braid groups are the natural generalizations of braid groups associated to arbitrary (finite) complex reflection groups. We investigate several methods for computing the homology of these groups. In particular, we get the Poincar\'e…

Let $S$ and $S'$ be orientable finite-type surfaces of genus $g\geq 4$ and $g'$, respectively. We prove that every multitwist-preserving map between pure mapping class groups $\text{PMap}(S)\to \text{PMap}(S')$ is induced by a…

We prove that, for $g\geq19$ the mapping class group of a nonorientable surface of genus $g$, $\textrm{Mod}(N_g)$, can be generated by two elements, one of which is of order $g$. We also prove that for $g\geq26$, $\textrm{Mod}(N_g)$ can be…

The Magnus representation of the Torelli subgroup of the mapping class group of a surface is a homomorphism r: I_{g,1} -> GL_{2g}(Z[H]). Here H is the first homology group of the surface. This representation is not faithful; in particular,…

When $S$ is a closed, orientable surface with genus $g(S) \geq 2$, we show that the automorphism group of the compression body graph $\mathcal{CB}(S)$ is the mapping class group. Here, vertices are compression bodies with exterior boundary…

This article is an exposition of certain connections between the braid groups, classical homotopy groups of the 2-sphere, as well as Lie algebras attached to the descending central series of pure braid groups arising as Vassiliev invariants…

We define a monodromy homomorphism for irreducible families of regular elliptic fibrations which takes values in the mapping class group of a punctured sphere. We compute the monodromy for elliptic fibrations only which contain no singular…

This paper will appear in the Santa Cruz proceedings. An overview of the braid group techniques in the theory of algebraic surfaces, from Zariski to the latest results, is presented. An outline of the Van Kampen algorithm for computing…

The Prym map of type (g,n,r) associates to every cyclic covering of degree n of a curve of genus g, ramified at a reduced divisor of degree r, the corresponding Prym variety. We show that the corresponding map of moduli spaces is…

Let $g$ be a non-negative integer, $\Sigma _g$ a closed orientable surface of genus $g$, and $\mathcal{M}_g$ its mapping class group. We classify all the group homomorphisms $\pi _1(\Sigma _g)\to G$ up to the action of $\mathcal{M}_g$ on…

Let $S$ be a surface of nonpositive curvature of genus bigger than 1 (i.e. not the torus). We prove that any flat strip in the surface is in fact a flat cylinder. Moreover we prove that the number of homotopy classes of such flat cylinders…

By considering appropriate finite covering spaces of closed non-orientable surfaces, we construct linear representations of their mapping class group which have finite index image in certain big arithmetic groups.

We study the homeomorphism types of certain covers of (always orientable) surfaces, usually of infinite-type. We show that every surface with non-abelian fundamental group is covered by every noncompact surface, we identify the universal…