Let $Σ$ be a surface with either boundary or marked points, equipped with an arbitrary framing. In this note we determine the action of the associated "framed mapping class group" on the homology of $Σ$ relative to its boundary (respectively marked points), describing the image as the kernel of a certain crossed homomorphism related to classical spin structures. Applying recent work of the authors, we use this to describe the monodromy action of the orbifold fundamental group of a stratum of abelian differentials on the relative periods.
In this paper, we introduce two new classes of representations of the framed braid groups. One is the homological representation constructed as the action of a mapping class group on a certain homology group. The other is the monodromy representation of the confluent KZ equation, which is a generalization of the KZ equation to have irregular singularities. We also give a conjectural equivalence between these two classes of representations.
We show that, if g is more than or equal to 2, the virtual cohomological dimension of the mapping class group of a 3-dimensional handlebody of genus g is equal to 4g-5 and the Euler number of it is equal to 0.
This paper investigates the relationship between strata of abelian differentials and various mapping class groups afforded by means of the topological monodromy representation. Building off of prior work of the authors, we show that the fundamental group of a stratum surjects onto the subgroup of the mapping class group which preserves a fixed framing of the underlying Riemann surface, thereby giving a complete characterization of the monodromy group. In the course of our proof we also show that these "framed mapping class groups" are finitely generated (even though they are of infinite index)…
Let $Γ$ be either the mapping class group of a closed surface of genus $\geq 2$, or the automorphism group of a free group of rank $\geq 3$. Given any homological representation $ρ$ of $Γ$ corresponding to a finite cover, and any term $\mathcal{I}_k$ of the Johnson filtration, we show that $ρ(\mathcal{I}_k)$ has finite index in $ρ(\mathcal{I})$, the Torelli subgroup of $Γ$. Since $[\mathcal{I}: \mathcal{I}_k] = \infty$ for $k > 1$, this implies for instance that no such representation is faithful.
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.
Let S be an orientable surface with negative Euler characteristic, let ψ\in\Mod(S) be a mapping class of S, and let T_ψ be the mapping torus of ψ. We study the action of lifts of ψon the homology of finite covers of S via the torsion homology growth of towers of finite covers of T_ψ. We show that ψadmits a lift to a finite cover with a homological eigenvalue of length greater than one if and only if the mapping torus T_ψ admits a finite cover X and a certain tower of abelian covers which have exponential torsion homology growth. We show that the existence of such a lift of ψis intrinsic to T_ψ…
We study the action of the mapping class group on the real homology of finite covers of a topological surface. We use the homological representation of the mapping class to construct a faithful infinite-dimensional representation of the mapping class group. We show that this representation detects the Nielsen-Thurston classification of each mapping class. We then discuss some examples that occur in the theory of braid groups and develop an analogous theory for automorphisms of free groups. We close with some open problems.
Using the Galatius--Kupers--Randal-Williams framework of cellular $E_2$-algebras, we prove a secondary stability theorem for mapping class groups of nonorientable surfaces. As a corollary, we obtain a new best known stability range for the homology of the mapping class groups of nonorientable surfaces with respect to adding torus holes.
In this note, we show that, if a pseudo-Anosov map $ϕ:S\to S$ admits a finite cover whose action on the first homology has spectral radius greater than $1$, then the monodromy of any fibered structure of any finite cover of the mapping torus $M_ϕ$ has the same property.
We give definitions of moduli spaces of framed, r-Spin and Pin surfaces. We apply earlier work of the author to show that each of these moduli spaces exhibits homological stability, and we identify the stable integral homology with that of certain infinite loop spaces in each case. We further show that these moduli spaces each have path components which are Eilenberg--MacLane spaces for the framed, r-Spin and Pin mapping class groups respectively, and hence we also identify the stable group homology of these groups. In particular: the stable framed mapping class group has trivial rational homo…
Let $Σ$ be a compact orientable surface of finite type with at least one boundary component. Let $f \in \textup{Mod}(Σ)$ be a pseudo Anosov mapping class. We prove a conjecture of McMullen by showing that there exists a finite cover $\widetildeΣ \to Σ$ and a lift $\widetilde{f}$ of $f$ such that $\wt{f}_*: H_1(\wtΣ; \mathbb{Z}) \to H_1(\wtΣ; \mathbb{Z})$ has an eigenvalue off the unit circle.
We compare two different types of mapping class invariants: the Hochschild homology of an $A_\infty$ bimodule coming from bordered Heegaard Floer homology, and fixed point Floer cohomology. We first compute the bimodule invariants and their Hochschild homology in the genus two case. We then compare the resulting computations to fixed point Floer cohomology, and make a conjecture that the two invariants are isomorphic. We also discuss a construction of a map potentially giving the isomorphism. It comes as an open-closed map in the context of a surface being viewed as a $0$-dimensional Lefschetz…
We focus on two kinds of infinite index subgroups of the mapping class group of a surface associated with a Lagrangian submodule of the first homology of a surface. These subgroups, called Lagrangian mapping class groups, are known to play important roles in the interaction between the mapping class group and finite-type invariants of 3-manifolds. In this paper, we discuss these groups from a group (co)homological point of view. The results include the determination of their abelianizations, lower bounds of the second homology and remarks on the (co)homology of higher degrees. As a by-product …
We give a complete and detailed proof of Harer's stability theorem for the homology of mapping class groups of surfaces, with the best stability range presently known. This theorem and its proof have seen several improvements since Harer's original proof in the mid-80's, and our purpose here is to assemble these many additions.
We prove that the homology of the mapping class groups of non-orientable surfaces stabilizes with the genus of the surface. Combining our result with recent work of Madsen and Weiss, we obtain that the classifying space of the stable mapping class group of non-orientable surfaces, up to homology isomorphism, is the infinite loop space of a Thom spectrum build from the canonical bundle over the Grassmannians of 2-planes in R^{n+2}. In particular, we show that the stable rational cohomology is a polynomial algebra on generators in degrees 4i--this is the non-oriented analogue of the Mumford conj…
Let f be an isolated plane curve singularity with Milnor fiber of genus at least 5. For all such f, we give (a) an intrinsic description of the geometric monodromy group that does not invoke the notion of the versal deformation space, and (b) an easy criterion to decide if a given simple closed curve in the Milnor fiber is a vanishing cycle or not. With the lone exception of singularities of type $A_n$ and $D_n$, we find that both are determined completely by a canonical framing of the Milnor fiber induced by the Hamiltonian vector field associated to f. As a corollary we answer a question of …
In this paper, it is shown that any surface automorphism of positive mapping-class entropy possesses a virtual homological eigenvalue which lies outside the unit circle of the complex plane.
Let S be an oriented surface of finite type of genus g with m punctures and where 3g-3+m>1. We show that the mapping class group M(S) of S is quasi-isometrically rigid. We also give a different proof of the following result of Behrstock and Minsky: The homological dimension of the asmyptotic cone of M(S) of S equals 3g-3+m.
We describe the action of the automorphism group of the complex cubic x^2+y^2+z^2-xyz-2 on the homology of its fibers. This action includes the action of the mapping class group of a punctured torus on the subvarieties of its SL(2,C) character variety given by fixing the trace of the peripheral element (so-called "relative character varieties"). This mapping class group is isomorphic to PGL(2,Z). We also describe the corresponding mapping class group action for the four-holed sphere and its relative SL(2,C) character varieties, which are fibers of deformations x^2+y^2+z^2-xyz-2-Px-Qy-Rz of the…
We provide a homological model for a family of quantum representations of mapping class groups arising from non-semisimple TQFTs (Topological Quantum Field Theories). Our approach gives a new geometric point of view on these representations, and it gathers into one theory two of the most promising constructions for investigating linearity of mapping class groups. More precisely, if $\varSigma_{g,1}$ is a surface of genus $g$ with $1$ boundary component, we consider a (crossed) action of its mapping class group $\mathrm{Mod}(\varSigma_{g,1})$ on the homology of its configuration space $\mathrm{…
Alternating-sign Hopf plumbing along a tree yields fibered alternating links whose homological monodromy is, up to a sign, conjugate to some alternating-sign Coxeter transformation. Exploiting this tie, we obtain results about the location of zeros of the Alexander polynomial of the fibered link complement implying a strong case of Hoste's conjecture, the trapezoidal conjecture, bi-orderability of the link group, and a sharp lower bound for the homological dilatation of the monodromy of the fibration. The results extend to more general hyperbolic fibered 3-manifolds associated to alternating-s…
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.
Let $M$ be a smooth closed orientable surface. Let $F$ be the space of Morse functions on $M$, and $\mathbb{F}^1$ the space of framed Morse functions, both endowed with $C^\infty$-topology. The space $\mathbb{F}^0$ of special framed Morse functions is defined. We prove that the inclusion mapping $\mathbb{F}^0\hookrightarrow\mathbb{F}^1$ is a homotopy equivalence. In the case when at least $χ(M)+1$ critical points of each function of $F$ are labeled, homotopy equivalences $\mathbb{\widetilde K}\sim\widetilde{\cal M}$ and $F\sim\mathbb{F}^0\sim{\mathscr D}^0\times\mathbb{\widetilde K}$ are prove…
Let $Σ$ be a compact orientable surface of finite type with at least one boundary component. Let $Γ\leq \textup{Mod}(Σ)$ be a non virtually solvable subgroup. We answer a question of Lubotzky by showing that there exists a finite dimensional homological representation $ρ$ of $\textup{Mod}(Σ)$ such that $ρ(Γ)$ is not virtually solvable. We then apply results of Lubotzky and Meiri to show that for any random walk on such a group the probability of landing on a power, or on an element with topological entropy $0$ both decrease exponentially in the length of the walk.
Given a family of groups admitting a braided monoidal structure (satisfying mild assumptions) we construct a family of spaces on which the groups act and whose connectivity yields, via a classical argument of Quillen, homological stability for the family of groups. We show that stability also holds with both polynomial and abelian twisted coefficients, with no further assumptions. This new construction of a family of spaces from a family of groups recovers known spaces in the classical examples of stable families of groups, such as the symmetric groups, general linear groups and mapping class …
We generalize a discovery of Kasahara and show that the Jones representations of braid groups, when evaluated at $q = -1$, are related to the action on homology of a branched double cover of the underlying punctured disk. As an application, we prove for a large family of pseudo-Anosov mapping classes a conjecture put forward by Andersen, Masbaum, and Ueno by extending their original argument for the sphere with four marked points to our more general case.
In this paper we present a new proof of the homological stability of the moduli space of closed surfaces in a simply connected background space $K$, which we denote by $S_g (K)$. The homology stability of surfaces in $K$ with an arbitrary number of boundary components, $S_{g,n} (K)$ was studied by the authors in \cite{cohenmadsen}. The study there relied on stability results for the homology of mapping class groups, $Γ_{g,n}$ with certain families of twisted coefficients. It turns out that these mapping class groups only have homological stability when $n$, the number of boundary components, i…
We prove the following well known conjecture: let $Σ$ be an oriented surface of finite type whose fundamental group is a nonabelian free group. Let $ϕ\in \textup{Mod}(Σ)$ be a an infinite order mapping class. Then there exists a finite solvable cover $\widehatΣ \to Σ$, and a lift $\widehatϕ$ of $ϕ$ such that the action of $\widehatϕ$ on $H_1(\widehatΣ, \mathbb{Z})$ has infinite order. Our main tools are the theory of homological shadows, which was previously developed by the author, and Fourier analysis
By the work of Harer, the reduced homology of the complex of curves is a fundamental cohomological object associated to all torsion free finite index subgroups of the mapping class group. We call this homology group the Steinberg module of the mapping class group. It was previously known that the curve complex has the homotopy type of a bouquet of spheres. Here, we give the first explicit homologically nontrivial sphere in the curve complex and show that under the action of the mapping class group, the orbit of this homology class generates the reduced homology of the curve complex.
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.
Let $X_n$ be a cycle of $n$ projective lines, and $\bT_n$ a symplectic torus with $n$ punctures. Using the theory of spherical twists introduced by Seidel and Thomas (2001), I will define an action of the pure mapping class group of $\bT_n$ on $D^b(Coh(X_n))$. The motivation comes from homological mirror symmetry for degenerate elliptic curves, which was studied by the author with Treumann and Zaslow in arXiv:1103.2462 .
Godin introduced the categories of open closed fat graphs $Fat^{oc}$ and admissible fat graphs $Fat^{ad}$ as models of the mapping class group of open closed cobordism. We use the contractibility of the arc complex to give a new proof of Godin's result that $Fat^{ad}$ is a model of the mapping class group of open-closed cobordisms. Similarly, Costello introduced a chain complex of black and white graphs $BW$-Graphs, as a rational homological model of mapping class groups. We use the result on admissible fat graphs to give a new integral proof of Costellos's result that $BW$-Graphs is a homolog…
We consider a homological enlargement of the mapping class group, defined by homology cylinders over a closed oriented surface (up to homology cobordism). These are important model objects in the recent Goussarov-Habiro theory of finite-type invariants of 3-manifolds. We study the structure of this group from several directions: the relative weight filtration of Dennis Johnson, the finite-type filtration of Goussarov-Habiro, and the relation to string link concordance. We also consider a new Lagrangian filtration of both the mapping class group and the group of homology cylinders.
We prove that the homology of the mapping class group of any 3-manifold stabilizes under connected sum and boundary connected sum with an arbitrary 3-manifold when both manifolds are compact and orientable. The stabilization also holds for the quotient group by twists along spheres and disks, and includes as particular cases homological stability for symmetric automorphisms of free groups, automorphisms of certain free products, and handlebody mapping class groups. Our methods also apply to manifolds of other dimensions in the case of stabilization by punctures.
We state Asymptotic Expansion and Growth Rate conjectures for the Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev invariants of arbitrary framed links in 3-manifolds, and we prove these conjectures for the natural links in mapping tori of finite-order automorphisms of marked surfaces. Our approach is based upon geometric quantisation of the moduli space of parabolic bundles on the surface, which we show coincides with the construction of the Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev invariants using conformal field theory, as was recently completed by Andersen and Ueno.
The notion of the geometrical $\Z/2 \oplus \Z/2$--control of self-intersection of a skew-framed immersion and the notion of the $\Z/2 \oplus \Z/4$-structure (the cyclic structure) on the self-intersection manifold of a $\D_4$-framed immersion are introduced. It is shown that a skew-framed immersion $f:M^{\frac{3n+q}{4}} \looparrowright \R^n$, $0 < q <<n$ (in the $\frac{3n}{4}+ε$-range) admits a geometrical $\Z/2 \oplus \Z/2$--control if the characteristic class of the skew-framing of this immersion admits a retraction of the order $q$, i.e. there exists a mapping $κ_0: M^{\frac{3n+q}{4}} \to \…
We construct analogues of FI-modules where the role of the symmetric group is played by the general linear groups and the symplectic groups over finite rings and prove basic structural properties such as Noetherianity. Applications include a proof of the Lannes--Schwartz Artinian conjecture in the generic representation theory of finite fields, very general homological stability theorems with twisted coefficients for the general linear and symplectic groups over finite rings, and representation-theoretic versions of homological stability for congruence subgroups of the general linear group, th…
We study homological representations of mapping class groups, including the braid groups. These arise from the twisted homology of certain configuration spaces, and come in many different flavours. Our goal is to give a unified general account of the fundamental relationships (non-degenerate pairings, embeddings, isomorphisms) between the many different flavours of homological representations. Our motivating examples are the Lawrence-Bigelow representations of the braid groups, which are of central importance in the study of the braid groups themselves, as well as their connections with quantu…
Suppose that $f$ is a homomorphism from the mapping class group $\mathcal{M}(N_{g,n})$ of a nonorientable surface of genus $g$ with $n$ boundary components, to $\mathrm{GL}(m,\mathbb{C})$. We prove that if $g\ge 5$, $n\le 1$ and $m\le g-2$, then $f$ factors through the abelianization of $\mathcal{M}(N_{g,n})$, which is $\mathbb{Z}_2\times\mathbb{Z}_2$ for $g\in\{5,6\}$ and $\mathbb{Z}_2$ for $g\ge 7$. If $g\ge 7$, $n=0$ and $m=g-1$, then either $f$ has finite image (of order at most two if $g\ne 8$), or it is conjugate to one of four "homological representations". As an application we prove th…
Mapping class groups of Haken 3-manifolds enjoy many of the homological finiteness properties of mapping class groups of 2-manifolds of finite type. For example, H(M) has a torsionfree subgroup of finite index, which is geometrically finite (i. e. is the fundamental group of a finite aspherical complex). This was proven by J. Harer for 2-manifolds and by the second author for Haken 3-manifolds. In this paper we prove that H(M) acts properly discontinuously on a contractible simplicial complex, with compact quotient. This implies that every torsionfree subgroup of finite index in H(M) is geomet…
In this paper we apply the theory of finitely generated FI-modules developed by Church, Ellenberg and Farb to certain sequences of rational cohomology groups. Our main examples are the cohomology of the moduli space of n-pointed curves, the cohomology of the pure mapping class group of surfaces and some manifolds of higher dimension, and the cohomology of classifying spaces of some diffeomorphism groups. We introduce the notion of FI[G]-module and use it to strengthen and give new context to results on representation stability discussed by the author in a previous paper. Moreover, we prove tha…
Given a mapping class f of an oriented surface Sigma and a lagrangian lambda in the first homology of Sigma, we define an integer n_{lambda}(f). We use n_{lambda}(f) (mod 4) to describe a universal central extension of the mapping class group of Sigma as an index-four subgroup of the extension constructed from the Maslov index of triples of lagrangian subspaces in the homology of the surface. We give two descriptions of this subgroup. One is topological using surgery, the other is homological and builds on work of Turaev and work of Walker. Some applications to TQFT are discussed. They are bas…
Consider the unit ball, $B = D \times [0,1]$, containing $n$ unknotted arcs $a_1, a_2, ..., a_n$ such that the boundary of each $a_i$ lies in $D \times \{0\}$. The Hilden (or Wicket) group is the mapping class group of $B$ fixing the arcs $a_1 \cup a_2 \cup ... \cup a_n$ setwise and fixing $D \times \{1\}$ pointwise. This group can be considered as a subgroup of the braid group. The pure Hilden group is defined to be the intersection of the Hilden group and the pure braid group. In a previous paper we computed a presentaion for the Hilden group using an action of the group on a cellular comple…
