English

The mapping class group of the Cantor tree has only geometric normal subgroups

Group Theory 2020-02-18 v1 Geometric Topology

Abstract

A normal subgroup of the (extended) mapping class group of a surface is said to be geometric if its automorphism group is the mapping class group. We prove that in the case of the Cantor tree surface, every normal subgroup is geometric. We note that there is no non-trivial finite-type mapping class group for which this statement is true. We study a generalisation of the curve graph, proving that its automorphism group is again the mapping class group. This strategy is adapted from that of Brendle-Margalit and the author for certain normal subgroups in the finite-type setting.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2002.06970,
  title  = {The mapping class group of the Cantor tree has only geometric normal subgroups},
  author = {Alan McLeay},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2002.06970},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

10 pages, 1 figure, comments welcome

R2 v1 2026-06-23T13:43:59.786Z