Let $Σ_{g,p}$ be a closed oriented surface of genus $g\geq 1$ with $p$ punctures. Let $\rm Mod(Σ_{\textit{g,p}})$ be the mapping class group of $Σ_{g,p}$. Wajnryb proved in [Wa] that for $p=0, 1$ $\rm Mod({Σ_{\textit{g,p}}})$ is generated by two elements. Korkmaz proved in [Ko] that one of these generators can be taken as a Dehn twist. For $p\geq 2$, We proved that $\rm Mod(Σ_{\textit{g,p}})$ is generated by three elements.
In these lecture notes, we combine recent homological methods of Kevin Whyte with older dynamical methods developed by Benson Farb and myself, to obtain a new quasi-isometric rigidity theorem for the mapping class group MCG(S) of a once punctured surface S of genus at least 2: if K is a finitely generated group quasi-isometric to MCG(S) then there is a homomorphism K -> MCG(S) with finite kernel and finite index image. This theorem is joint with Kevin Whyte.
In this paper, we use a result of Dahmani to show that the Euler class of some power subgroup (the subgroup normally generated by a fixed power of Dehn twist about a non-separating curve) is trivial inside the mapping class group of once punctured surface.
We calculate the virtually-cyclic dimension of the mapping class group of a sphere with at most six punctures. As an immediate consequence, we obtain the virtually-cyclic dimension of the mapping class group of the twice-holed torus and of the closed genus-two surface.
In this paper we show that the normal closure of the mth power of a half-twist has infinite index in the mapping class group of a punctured sphere. Furthermore, in some cases we prove that the quotient of the mapping class group of the punctured sphere by the normal closure of a power of a half-twist contains a free abelian subgroup. As a corollary we prove that the quotient of the hyperelliptic mapping class group of a surface of genus at least two by the normal closure of the mth power of a Dehn twist has infinite order, and for some integers m the quotient contains a free nonabelian subgrou…
Let $\textrm{Mod}(N_{g, p})$ denote the mapping class group of a nonorientable surface of genus $g$ with $p$ punctures. For $g\geq14$, we show that $\textrm{Mod}(N_{g, p})$ can be generated by five elements or by six involutions.
Let $Σ$ be a complete finite-area orientable hyperbolic surface with one cusp, and let $\mathcal{R}$ be the space of complete geodesic rays in $Σ$ emanating from the puncture. Then there is a natural action of the mapping class group of $Σ$ on $\mathcal{R}$. We show that this action is "almost everywhere" wandering.
Consider an oriented compact surface F of positive genus, possibly with boundary, and a finite set P of punctures in the interior of F, and define the punctured mapping class group of F relatively to P to be the group of isotopy classes of orientation-preserving homeomorphisms h: F-->F which pointwise fix the boundary of F and such that h(P) = P. In this paper, we calculate presentations for all punctured mapping class groups. More precisely, we show that these groups are isomorphic with quotients of Artin groups by some relations involving fundamental elements of parabolic subgroups.
Let $Σ_{g,p}$ be a oriented connected surface of genus $g$ with $p$ punctures. We denote by $\mathcal{M}_{g,p}$ and $\mathcal{M}_{g,p}^\pm$ the mapping class group and the extended mapping class group of $Σ_{g,p}$, respectively. In this paper, we show that $\mathcal{M}_{g,p}$ and $\mathcal{M}_{g,p}^\pm$ are generated by two element for $g\geq 3$ and $p\geq 0$.
This document is a practical guide to computations using an automatic structure for the mapping class group of a once-punctured, oriented surface $S$. We describe a quadratic time algorithm for the word problem in this group, which can be implemented efficiently with pencil and paper. The input of the algorithm is a word, consisting of ``chord diagrams'' of ideal triangulations and elementary moves, which represents an element of the mapping class group. The output is a word called a ``normal form'' that uniquely represents the same group element.
We prove that many normal subgroups of the extended mapping class group of a surface with punctures are geometric, that is, that their automorphism groups and abstract commensurator groups are isomorphic to the extended mapping class group. In order to apply our theorem to a normal subgroup we require that the "minimal supports" of its elements satisfy a certain complexity condition that is easy to check in practice. The key ingredient is proving that the automorphism groups of many simplicial complexes associated to punctured surfaces are isomorphic to the extended mapping class group. This r…
We give a presentation for the baseleaf preserving mapping class group $Mod(§)$ of the punctured solenoid $§$. The generators for our presentation were introduced previously, and several relations among them were derived. In addition, we show that $Mod(§)$ has no non-trivial central elements. Our main tool is a new complex of triangulations of the disk upon which $Mod(§)$ acts.
Let $Σ_{g,b}$ denote a closed orientable surface of genus $g$ with $b$ punctures and let $\rm Mod(Σ_{\textit{g,b}})$ denote its mapping class group. In [Luo] Luo proved that if the genus is at least 3, $\rm Mod(Σ_{\textit{g,b}})$ is generated by involutions. He also asked if there exists a universal upper bound, independent of genus and the number of punctures, for the number of torsion elements/involutions needed to generate $\rm Mod(Σ_{\textit{g,b}})$. Brendle and Farb [BF] gave an answer in the case of $g\geq 3, b=0$ and $g\geq 4, b=1$, by describing a generating set consisting of 6 involut…
We develop an algebraic representation for (1,1)-knots using the mapping class group of the twice punctured torus MCG(T,2). We prove that every (1,1)-knot in a lens space L(p,q) can be represented by the composition of an element of a certain rank two free subgroup of MCG(T,2) with a standard element only depending on the ambient space. As a notable examples, we obtain a representation of this type for all torus knots and for all two-bridge knots. Moreover, we give explicit cyclic presentations for the fundamental groups of the cyclic branched coverings of torus knots of type (k,ck+2).
We investigate the relation between the topological entropy of pseudo-Anosov maps on surfaces with punctures and the rank of the first homology of their mapping tori. On the surface $S$ of genus $g$ with $n$ punctures, we show that the entropy of a pseudo-Anosov map is bounded from above by $\dfrac{(k+1)\log(k+3)}{|χ(S)|}$ up to a constant multiple when the rank of the first homology of the mapping torus is $k+1$ and $k, g, n$ satisfy a certain assumption. This is a partial generalization of precedent works of Tsai and Agol-Leininger-Margalit.
Let Mod(Sigma_{g, p}) denote the mapping class group of a connected orientable surface of genus g with p punctures. For every even integer p \geq 10 and g \geq 14, we prove that Mod(Sigma_{g, p}) can be generated by three involutions. If the number of punctures p is odd and \geq 9, we show that Mod(Sigma_{g, p}) for g \geq 13 can be generated by four involutions. Moreover, we show that for an even integer p \geq 4 and 3 \leq g \geq 6, Mod(Sigma_{g, p}) can be generated by four involutions.
Let X_n be a cycle of n projective lines, and T_n a symplectic torus with n punctures. In this paper we review results appeared in arXiv:1103.2462 and in arXiv:1109.6615, which establish a version of homological mirror symmetry relating X_n and T_n, and define on D^b(Coh(X_n)) an action of the pure mapping class group of T_n.
We study the maximal entropy per unit generator of push-point mapping classes on the punctured disk. Our work is motivated by fluid mixing by rods in a planar domain. If a single rod moves among N-fixed obstacles, the resulting fluid diffeomorphism is in the push-point mapping class associated with the loop in π_1(D^2 - {N points}) traversed by the single stirrer. The collection of motions in each of which the stirrer goes around a single obstacle generate the group of push-point mapping classes, and the entropy efficiency with respect to these generators gives a topological measure of the mix…
In this paper we provide a classification of fundamental group elements representing simple closed curves on the punctured Klein bottle, Similar to the Birman-Series classification of curves on the punctured torus[1]. In the process, an explicit description of the mapping class group is given. We then apply this to give a counterexample the simple loop conjecture for representations from the Klein bottle group to PGL(2,R).
Let $N_{g,n}$ denote the closed non-orientable surface of genus $g$ with $n$ punctures and let ${\mathcal N}_{g,n}$ denote the mapping class group of $N_{g,n}$. Szepietowski showed that ${\mathcal N}_{g,n}$ is generated by finitely many involutions. The number of elements in his generating set depends linearly on $g$ and $n$. In the case of $n=0$, Szepietowski found an involution generating set in such a way that the number of its elements does not depend on $g$, showing that ${\mathcal N}_{g,0}$ is generated by four involutions. In this thesis, for $n \geq 0$, we prove that ${\mathcal N}_{g,n…
We construct a certain cross product of two copies of the braided dual $\tilde H$ of a quasitriangular Hopf algebra $H$, which we call the elliptic double $E_H$, and which we use to construct representations of the punctured elliptic braid group extending the well-known representations of the planar braid group attached to $H$. We show that the elliptic double is the universal source of such representations. We recover the representations of the punctured torus braid group obtained in arXiv:0805.2766, and hence construct a homomorphism to the Heisenberg double $D_H$, which is an isomorphism if…
We introduce subgroups ${\mathcal{B}}_g< {\mathcal H}_g$ of the mapping class group $Mod(Σ_g)$ of a closed surface of genus $g \ge 0$ with a Cantor set removed, which are extensions of Thompson's group $V$ by a direct limit of mapping class groups of compact surfaces of genus $g$. We first show that both ${\mathcal{B}}_g$ and ${\mathcal H}_g$ are finitely presented, and that ${\mathcal H}_g$ is dense in $Mod(Σ_g)$. We then exploit the relation with Thompson's groups to study properties ${\mathcal B}_g$ and ${\mathcal H}_g$ in analogy with known facts about finite-type mapping class groups. For…
The mapping class group $Γ^k(N_g)$ of a non-orientable surface with punctures is studied via classical homotopy theory of configuration spaces. In particular, we obtain a non-orientable version of the Birman exact sequence. In the case of $\mathbb R {\rm P}^2$, we analize the Serre spectral sequence of a fiber bundle $F_k(\mathbb R {\rm P}^2)/Σ_k \to X_k \to BSO(3)$ where $X_k$ is a $K(Γ^k(\mathbb R {\rm P}^2),1)$ and $F_k(\mathbb R {\rm P}^2)/Σ_k$ denotes the configuration space of unordered $k$-tuples of distinct points in $\mathbb R {\rm P}^2$. As a consequence, we express the mod-2 cohomol…
We use quantum invariants to define an analytic family of representations for the mapping class group of a punctured surface. The representations depend on a complex number A with |A| <= 1 and act on an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space. They are unitary when A is real or imaginary, bounded when |A|<1, and only densely defined when |A| = 1 and A is not a root of unity. When A is a root of unity distinct from 1, -1, i, -i the representations are finite-dimensional and isomorphic to the "Hom" version of the well-known TQFT quantum representations. The unitary representations in the interval [-1…
We classify right-veering homeomorphisms of the once-punctured torus using the Burau representation of the 3-strand braid group. We show that reducible and periodic mapping classes in B_3 can be identified as right-veering by consideration of the reduced version of the Burau representation. Given any element beta in B_3, we give a method to quickly determine its action on the generators of the fundamental group of the 3-times punctured disk. This action which determines whether beta is right-veering, left-veering, or neither.
A fast algorithm for counting intersections of two normal curves on a triangulated surface is proposed. It yields a convenient way for treating mapping class groups of punctured surfaces by presenting mapping classes by matrices, and the composition by an exotic matrix multiplication. An efficient solution of the word problem for mapping class groups of punctured surfaces is proposed, with efficiency understood in a more restrictive way than the most common one.
We obtain new variations of the original McShane identity for those SL(2,C)-representations of the once punctured torus group which satisfy the Bowditch conditions, and also for those fixed up to conjugacy by an Anosov mapping class of the torus and satisfying the relative Bowditch conditions.
We derive two types of linearity conditions for mapping class groups of orientable surfaces: one for once-punctured surface, and the other for closed surface, respectively. For the once-punctured case, the condition is described in terms of the action of the mapping class group on the deformation space of linear representations of the fundamental group of the corresponding closed surface. For the closed case, the condition is described in terms of the vector space generated by the isotopy classes of essential simple closed curves on the corresponding surface. The latter condition also describe…
We give counterexamples to a question of Bowditch that if a non-elementary type-preserving representation $ρ:π_1(Σ_{g,n})\rightarrow PSL(2;\mathbb R)$ of a punctured surface group sends every non-peripheral simple closed curve to a hyperbolic element, then must $ρ$ be Fuchsian. The counterexamples come from relative Euler class $\pm1$ representations of the four-punctured sphere group. We also show that the mapping class group action on each non-extremal component of the character space of type-preserving representations of the four-punctured sphere group is ergodic, which confirms a conjectur…
We construct new monomorphisms between mapping class groups of surfaces. The first family of examples injects the mapping class group of a closed surface into that of a different closed surface. The second family of examples are defined on mapping class groups of once-punctured surfaces and have quite curious behaviour. For instance, some pseudo-Anosov elements are mapped to multi-twists. Neither of these two types of phenomena were previously known to be possible although the constructions are elementary.
The braid groups B_n can be defined as the mapping class group of the n-punctured disc. The Lawrence-Krammer representation of the braid group B_n is the induced action on a certain twisted second homology of the space of unordered pairs of points in the n-punctured disc. Recently, Daan Krammer showed that this is a faithful representation in the case n=4. In this paper, we show that it is faithful for all n.
We obtain representations of the f-based Mapping Class Group of oriented punctured surfaces from an action of mapping classes on Heisenberg homologies of a circle bundle over surface configurations.
For a pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism $f$ on a closed surface of genus $g\geq 2$, for which the entropy is on the order $\frac{1}{g}$ (the lowest possible order), Farb-Leininger-Margalit showed that the volume of the mapping torus is bounded, independent of $g$. We show that the analogous result fails for a surface of fixed genus $g$ with $n$ punctures, by constructing pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism with entropy of the minimal order $\frac{\log n}{n}$, and volume tending to infinity.
We study the ideal triangulation graph $T(S)$ of a punctured surface $S$ of finite type. We show that if $S$ is not the sphere with at most three punctures or the torus with one puncture, then the natural map from the extended mapping class group of $S$ into the simplicial automorphism group of $T(S)$ is an isomorphism. We also show that under the same conditions on $S$, the graph $T(S)$ equipped with its natural simplicial metric is not Gromov hyperbolic. Thus, from the point of view of Gromov hyperbolicity, the situation of $T(S)$ is different from that of the curve complex of $S$.
Our aim is to determine the lower central series (LCS) and derived series (DS) for the braid groups of the sphere and of the finitely-punctured sphere. We show that for all n (resp. all n\geq 5), the LCS (resp. DS) of the n-string braid group B\_n(S^2) is constant from the commutator subgroup onwards, and that Γ\_2(B\_4(S^2)) is a semi-direct product of the quaternion group by a free group of rank 2. For n=4, we determine the DS of B\_4(S^2), as well as its quotients. For n \geq 1, the class of m-string braid groups B\_m(S^2) \ {x\_1,...,x\_n} of the n-punctured sphere includes the Artin braid…
Let F a closed connected orientable surface bounding a genus g handlebody H. In this paper we find a finite set of generators for the subgroup E(2,g) of the pure mapping class group of the twice punctured torus PMCG(2,g), consisting of the isotopy classes of homeomorphisms of F which admit an extension to H keeping a properly embedded trivial arc fixed. This subgroup turns out to be important for the study of knots in closed 3-manifolds via (g,1)-decomposition. In fact, the knots represented by the isotopy classes belonging to the same left cosets of E(2,g) in PMCG(2,g) are equivalent.
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, which was shown to be faithful by Bigelow and Krammer. We obtain a faithful representation of the mapping class group of the n-punctured sphere by using the close relationship between this group and B_{n-1}. We then extend this to a faithful representation of the mapping class group of the genus two surface, using Birman and Hilden's result that this group is …
A generalized torsion in a group, an non-trivial element such that some products of its conjugates is the identity. This is an obstruction for a group being bi-orderable. Though it is known that there is a non bi-orderable group without generalized torsions, it is conjectured that 3-manifold groups without generalized torsions are bi-orderable. In this paper, we find generalized torsions in the fundamental groups of once punctured torus bundles which are not bi-orderable. Our result contains a generalized torsion in a tunnel number two hyperbolic once punctured torus bundle.
Let B_n be the braid group on n > 3 strands. We prove that B_n modulo its center is co-Hopfian. We then show that any injective endomorphism of B_n is geometric in the sense that it is induced by a homeomorphism of a punctured disk. We further prove that any injection from B_n to B_n+1 is geometric. Additionally, we obtain analogous results for mapping class groups of punctured spheres. The methods use Thurston's theory of surface homeomorphisms and build upon work of Ivanov and McCarthy.
In this paper, we construct polynomial growth harmonic maps from once-punctured Riemann surfaces of any finite genus to any even-sided, regular, ideal polygon in the hyperbolic plane. We also establish their uniqueness within a class of maps which differ by exponentially decaying variations. Previously, harmonic maps from once-punctured spheres to the hyperbolic plane have been parameterized by holomorphic quadratic differentials on the complex plane. Our harmonic maps, mapping a genus g>1 domain to a k-sided polygon, correspond to meromorphic quadratic differentials having one pole of order (…
Do and Norbury found a so-called differential relation which relates the volume of the moduli space of singular surface with a cone point to that of a smooth surface obtained by forgetting the cone point. Their procedure is valid for cone angles less than $π$ by work of Tan, Wong and Zhang. We study the moduli space of a surface with a single cone point of angle ranging from $0$ to $2π$ using a coordinate system closely related to Penner's $λ$-lengths. We compute the action of the mapping class group in these coordinates, give an explicit expression for Wolpert's symplectic form and use this t…
The central extension of mapping class groups of punctured surfaces of finite type that arises in Chekhov-Fock quantization is 12 times of the Meyer class plus the Euler classes of the punctures, which agree with the one arising in the Kashaev quantization.
The kth finite subset space of a topological space X is the space exp_k X of non-empty finite subsets of X of size at most k, topologised as a quotient of X^k. The construction is a homotopy functor and may be regarded as a union of configuration spaces of distinct unordered points in X. We calculate the homology of the finite subset spaces of a connected graph Gamma, and study the maps (exp_k phi)_* induced by a map phi:Gamma -> Gamma' between two such graphs. By homotopy functoriality the results apply to punctured surfaces also. The braid group B_n may be regarded as the mapping class group…
Let Mod(S) be the extended mapping class group of a surface S. For S the twice-punctured torus, we show that there exists an isomorphism of finite index subgroups of Mod(S) which is not the restriction of an inner automorphism. For S a torus with at least three punctures, we show that every injection of a finite index subgroup of Mod(S) into Mod(S) is the restriction of an inner automorphism; this completes a program begun by Irmak. For all of the above surfaces, we establish the co-Hopf property for finite index subgroups of Mod(S).
We study a particular class of representations from the fundamental groups of punctured spheres $Σ_{0,n}$ to the group $\text{PSL} (2,\mathbb R)$ (and their moduli spaces), that we call \emph{super-maximal}. Super-maximal representations are shown to be \emph{totally non hyperbolic}, in the sense that every simple closed curve is mapped to a non hyperbolic element. They are also shown to be \emph{geometrizable} (appart from the reducible super-maximal ones) in the following very strong sense : for any element of the Teichmüller space $\mathcal T_{0,n}$, there is a unique holomorphic equivarian…
The hyperelliptic mapping class group has been studied in various contexts within topology and algebraic geometry. What makes this study tractable is that there is a surjective map from the hyperelliptic mapping class group to a mapping class group of a punctured sphere. The more general family of superelliptic mapping class groups does not, in general, surject on to a mapping class group of a punctured sphere, but on to a finite index subgroup. We call this finite index subgroup the liftable mapping class group. In order to initiate the generalization of results on the hyperelliptic mapping c…
