Related papers: Generating the surface mapping class group by two …
The disjoint union of mapping class groups of surfaces forms a braided monoidal category $\mathcal M$, as the disjoint union of the braid groups $\mathcal B$ does. We give a concrete, and geometric meaning of the braiding $\beta_{r,s}$ in…
We give completely combinatorial proofs of the main results of [3] using polygons. Namely, we prove that the mapping class group of a surface with boundary acts faithfully on a finitely-generated linear category. Along the way we prove some…
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…
Let $\text{Mod}(S_g)$ be the mapping class group of the closed orientable surface $S_g$ of genus $g \geq 1$. In this paper, we develop various methods for factoring periodic mapping classes into Dehn twists, up to conjugacy. As…
We show that the mapping class group of a handlebody of genus at least 2 (with any number of marked points or spots) is exponentially distorted in the mapping class group of its boundary surface. The same holds true for solid tori with at…
In the symplectic mapping class group of a $4$-dimensional Weinstein domain, we give a relation between two products of (right-handed) Dehn twists via holomorphic curve techniques. A key ingredient of the construction is a solution to the…
In this paper we construct a faithful representation of the mapping class group of the genus two surface into a group of matrices over the complex numbers. Our starting point is the Lawrence-Krammer representation of the braid group B_n,…
The hyperelliptic Torelli group is the subgroup of the mapping class group consisting of elements that act trivially on the homology of the surface and that also commute with some fixed hyperelliptic involution. We prove a Birman exact…
Let $M(N_{h,n})$ denote the mapping class group of a compact nonorientable surface of genus $h\ge 7$ and $n\le 1$ boundary components, and let $T(N_{h,n})$ be the subgroup of $M(N_{h,n})$ generated by all Dehn twists. It is known that…
A left orderable completely metrizable topological group is exhibited containing Artin's braid group on infinitely many strands. The group is the mapping class group (rel boundary) of the closed unit disk with a sequence of interior…
We are concerned with mapping class groups of surfaces with nonempty boundary. We present a very natural method, due to Thurston, of finding many different left orderings of such groups. The construction involves equipping the surface with…
We show that every automorphism of the congruence completion of the extended mapping class group that preserves the set of conjugacy classes of procyclic groups generated by Dehn twists is inner, and that its automorphism group is naturally…
Let $S$ be a nonorientable surface of genus $g\ge 5$ with $n\ge 0$ punctures, and $\Mcg(S)$ its mapping class group. We define the complexity of $S$ to be the maximum rank of a free abelian subgroup of $\Mcg(S)$. Suppose that $S_1$ and…
Building on the work of K. Mann and K. Rafi, we analyze the large scale geometry of big mapping class groups of surfaces with a unique maximal end. We obtain a complete characterization of those that are globally CB, which does not require…
Using a similar algorithm to Hatcher-Thurston's algorithm for finding a presentation of the mapping class group of a surface, Wajnryb succeeded to find a presentation for the handlebody group. This is long and complicated. In this note I…
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,…
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.
Let $S(n)$, for $n \in \mathbb{N}$, be the infinite-type surface of infinite genus with $n$ ends, each accumulated by genus. Although the mapping class groups of these surfaces are not countably generated,they are Polish groups and hence…
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…
We introduce an operation that measures the self intersections of paths on a surface. As applications, we give a criterion of the realizability of a generalized Dehn twist, and derive a geometric constraint on the image of the Johnson…