Related papers: Extending Johnson's and Morita's homomorphisms to …

We use a classical result of McCord and reduction methods of finite spaces to prove a generalization of Thomason's theorem on homotopy colimits over posets. In particular this allows us to characterize the homotopy colimits of diagrams of…

This article grew out of an effort to understand the smooth mapping class groups of certain 4-manifolds in a geometric manner. We prove a smooth analog of the Birman-Hilden theorem for manifolds that admit a hyperk\"ahler structure. This…

For every hyperbolic group and more general hyperbolic graphs, we construct an equivariant ideal bicombing: this is a homological analogue of the geodesic flow on negatively curved manifolds. We then construct a cohomological invariant…

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 combinatorial approach to knot theory treats knots as diagrams modulo Reidemeister moves. Many constructions of knot invariants (e.g., index polynomials, quandle colorings, etc.) use elements of diagrams such as arcs and crossings by…

Let $\Sigma$ be a compact connected oriented surface with one boundary component and let $\mathcal{M}$ denote the mapping class group of $\Sigma$. By considering the action of $\mathcal{M}$ on the fundamental group of $\Sigma$ it is…

We extend the results of Riemannian geometry over finite groups and provide a full classification of all linear connections for the minimal noncommutative differential calculus over a finite cyclic group. We solve the torsion-free and…

We introduce $k$-robust clique complexes, a family of simplicial complexes that generalizes the traditional clique complex. Here, a subset of vertices forms a simplex provided it does not contain an independent set of size $k$. We…

We propose a new homotopy invariant for Lie groupoids which generalizes the classical Lusternik-Schnirelmann category for topological spaces. We use a bicategorical approach to develop a notion of contraction in this context. We propose a…

Let $M$ be a topological monoid with homotopy group completion $\Omega BM$. Under a strong homotopy commutativity hypothesis on $M$, we show that $\pi_k (\Omega BM)$ is the quotient of the monoid of free homotopy classes $[S^k, M]$ by its…

The classic 2pi-Theorem of Gromov and Thurston constructs a negatively curved metric on certain 3-manifolds obtained by Dehn filling. By Geometrization, any such manifold admits a hyperbolic metric. We outline a program using cross…

Let $\mathrm{XY_{L,T}}$ denote the class of countably infinite $L$-structures that satisfy the axioms $T$ and in which all homomorphisms of type X (these could be homomorphisms, monomorphisms, or isomorphisms) between finite substructures…

For all classical groups (and for their analogs in infinite dimension or over general base fields or rings) we construct certain contractions, called "homotopes". The construction is geometric, using as ingredient involutions of associative…

For all classical groups (and for their analogs in infinite dimension or over general base fields or rings) we construct certain contractions, called "homotopes". The construction is geometric, using as ingredient involutions of associative…

We give a complete classification of homomorphisms from the braid group on $n$ strands to the braid group on $2n$ strands when $n$ is at least 5. We also classify endomorphisms of the braid group on 4 strands, as well as homomorphisms from…

We discuss a number of open problems about mapping class groups of surfaces. In particular, we discuss problems related to linearity, congruence subgroups, cohomology, pseudo-Anosov stretch factors, Torelli subgroups, and normal subgroups.

This book is an account of certain topics in general and algebraic topology. Instead of laying out a synopsis of each chapter, here is a sample of some of what is taken up: 1) Nilpotency and its role in homotopy theory. 2) Bousfield's…

We use local Hamiltonian torus actions to degenerate a symplectic manifold to a normal crossings symplectic variety in a smooth one-parameter family. This construction, motivated in part by the Gross-Siebert and B. Parker's programs,…

We introduce Morita equivalence for Nijenhuis groupoids and for their infinitesimal counterparts, establishing a global-to-infinitesimal correspondence under the Lie functor. A special case is that of holomorphic Lie groupoids and…

We prove a diagonalisation theorem for the tautological, or generalised Miller-Morita-Mumford classes of compact, smooth, simply-connected definite $4$-manifolds. Our result can be thought of as a families version of Donaldson's…