Related papers: Counting maps from a surface to a graph

Let $G$ be a finite group admitting a coprime automorphism $\alpha$ of order $e$. Denote by $I_G(\alpha)$ the set of commutators $g^{-1}g^\alpha$, where $g\in G$, and by $[G,\alpha]$ the subgroup generated by $I_G(\alpha)$. We study the…

We determine all factorisations $X=AB$, where $X$ is a finite almost simple group and $A,B$ are core-free subgroups such that $A\cap B$ is cyclic or dihedral. As a main application, we classify the graphs $\Gamma$ admitting an almost simple…

An element $g$ of a group $G$ is a test element if every endomorphism of $G$ that fixes $g$ is an automorphism. Let $G$ be a free group of finite rank, an orientable surface group of genus $n \geq 2$, or a non-orientable surface group of…

Recently, John Franks and Michael Handel proved that, for $g\geq 3$ and $n\leq 2g-4$, every homomorphism from the mapping class group of an orientable surface of genus $g$ to $\GL (n,\C)$ is trivial. We extend this result to $n\leq 2g-1$,…

Given a finitely generated (fg) group G, the set R(G) of homomorphisms from G to SL(2,C) inherits the structure of an algebraic variety known as the "representation variety" of G. This algebraic variety is an invariant of fg presentations…

A well known question of Gromov asks whether every one-ended hyperbolic group $\Gamma$ has a surface subgroup. We give a positive answer when $\Gamma$ is the fundamental group of a graph of free groups with cyclic edge groups. As a result,…

Let $G$ be a graph and $\mathcal{F}$ a family of graphs. Define $\alpha_{\mathcal{F}}(G)$ as the maximum order of any induced subgraph of $G$ that belongs to the family $\mathcal{F}$. For the family $\mathcal{F}$ of graphs with…

Let $\Gamma_g$ be the fundamental group of a closed connected orientable surface of genus $g\geq2$. We introduce a combinatorial structure of "core surfaces", that represent subgroups of $\Gamma_g$. These structures are (usually)…

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…

The basis number of a graph $G$ is the minimum $k$ such that the cycle space of $G$ is generated by a family of cycles using each edge at most $k$ times. A classical result of Mac Lane states that planar graphs are exactly graphs with basis…

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,…

We classify homomorphisms from the braid group on $n$ strands to the pure mapping class group of a nonoriantable surface of genus $g$. For $n\ge 14$ and $g\le 2\lfloor{n/2}\rfloor+1$ every such homomorphism is either cyclic, or it maps…

We prove a result that relates the number of homomorphisms from the fundamental group of a compact nonorientable surface to a finite group $G$, where conjugacy classes of the boundary components of the surface must map to prescribed…

Let $\Sigma_{g}$ be a closed surface of genus $g\geq 2$ and $\Gamma_{g}$ denote the fundamental group of $\Sigma_{g}$. We establish a generalization of Voiculescu's theorem on the asymptotic $*$-freeness of Haar unitary matrices from free…

For a graph $G$ and a set of graphs $\mathcal{H}$, we say that $G$ is {\em $\mathcal{H}$-free} if no induced subgraph of $G$ is isomorphic to a member of $\mathcal{H}$. Given an integer $P>0$, a graph $G$, and a set of graphs $\mathcal{F}$,…

A $P_4$-free graph is called a cograph. In this paper we partially characterize finite groups whose power graph is a cograph. As we will see, this problem is a generalization of the determination of groups in which every element has prime…

This paper investigates derivations of the free semigroupoid algebra $\mathfrak{L}_G$ of a countable or uncountable directed graph $G$ and its norm-closed version, the tensor algebra $\mathcal{A}_G$. We first prove a weak Dixmier…

Associated to a finite graph $X$ is its quantum automorphism group $G$. The main problem is to compute the Poincar\'e series of $G$, meaning the series $f(z)=1+c_1z+c_2z^2+...$ whose coefficients are multiplicities of 1 into tensor powers…

Let $\alpha \in \mathbb{R}$ and let $$A=\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 1 \\ 0 & 1\end{bmatrix} \ \text{and} \ B_{\alpha} = \begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0 \\ \alpha & 1\end{bmatrix}.$$ The subgroup $G_\alpha$ of $\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{R})$ is a group generated…

Counting problems in general and counting graph homomorphisms in particular have numerous applications in combinatorics, computer science, statistical physics, and elsewhere. One of the most well studied problems in this area is…