Related papers: Probing mapping class groups using arcs
We introduce the notion of cyclic cohomology of an A-infinity algebra and show that the deformations of an A-infinity algebra which preserve an invariant inner product are classified by this cohomology. We use this result to construct some…
This is a survey paper that also contains some new results. It will appear in the proceedings of the AMS summer research institute on Algebraic Geometry at Santa Cruz.
We show that any pivotal Hopf monoid $H$ in a symmetric monoidal category $\mathcal{C}$ gives rise to actions of mapping class groups of oriented surfaces of genus $g \geq 1$ with $n \geq 1$ boundary components. These mapping class group…
The modular curves serve as excellent objects for testing conjectures in arithmetic geometry. They possess a natural geometric definition in contrast with rather nontrivial structure. On the other hand, they are well-studied from the…
Differentials on Riemann surfaces correspond to translation surfaces with conical singularities, and affine transformations acting on them preserve the orders of these singularities. This viewpoint allows the moduli spaces of differentials…
After introducing some motivations for this survey, we describe a formalism to parametrize a wide class of algebraic structures occurring naturally in various problems of topology, geometry and mathematical physics. This allows us to define…
The space of smooth sections of a symplectic fiber bundle carries a natural symplectic structure. We provide a general framework to determine the momentum map for the action of the group of bundle automorphism on this space. Since, in…
We study moduli spaces of flat metrics on closed Riemannian orbifolds admitting such metrics. We show that for such orbifolds $\mathcal{O}$, the Teichm\"uller space of flat metrics $\mathcal{T}_{\text{flat}}(\mathcal{O})$ serves as a…
We define the notion of a hierarchically cocompact classifying space for a family of subgroups of a group. Our main application is to show that the mapping class group $\mbox{Mod}(S)$ of any connected oriented compact surface $S$, possibly…
We consider Thompson's groups from the perspective of mapping class groups of surfaces of infinite type. This point of view leads us to the braided Thompson groups, which are extensions of Thompson's groups by infinite (spherical) braid…
Let $G$ be a compact connected Lie group with $\pi_1(G)\cong\mathbb{Z}$. We study the homotopy types of gauge groups of principal $G$-bundles over Riemann surfaces. This can be applied to an explicit computation of the homotopy groups of…
We describe an algorithm that constructs a list of all topological types of holomorphic actions of a finite group on a compact Riemann surface $C$ of genus at least $g \geq 2$ with $C/G \cong \mathbb{P}^1$.
This is a survey on the automorphism groups in various classes of affine algebraic surfaces and the algebraic group actions on such surfaces. Being infinite-dimensional, these automorphism groups share some important features of algebraic…
Associated to a Thurston map $f: S^2 \to S^2$ with postcritical set $P$ are several different invariants obtained via pullback: a relation on the set of free homotopy classes of curves in $S^2- P$, a linear operator on the free $\R$-module…
This paper has 3 principal goals: (1) to survey what is know about mapping class and Torelli groups of simply connected compact Kaehler manifolds, (2) supplement these results, and (3) present a list of questions and open problems to…
Though the uniformization theorem guarantees an equivalence of Riemann surfaces and smooth algebraic curves, moving between analytic and algebraic representations is inherently transcendental. Our analytic curves identify pairs of circles…
We describe an application of tropical moduli spaces to complex dynamics. A post-critically finite branched covering $\varphi$ of $S^2$ induces a pullback map on the Teichm\"uller space of complex structures of $S^2$; this descends to an…
In this paper we study the topology of the stack $\mathcal{T}_g$ of smooth trigonal curves of genus g, over the complex field. We make use of a construction by the first named author and Vistoli, that describes $\mathcal{T}_g$ as a quotient…
We study the Picard groups of moduli spaces of smooth complex projective curves that have a group of automorphisms with a prescribed topological action. One of our main tools is the theory of symmetric mapping class groups. In the first…
We construct a geometric model for the mapping class group M of a non-exceptional oriented surface of finite type and use it to show that the action of M on the compact Hausdorff space of complete geodesic laminations is topologically…