In the early 1980's, Johnson defined a homomorphism $\mathcal{I}_{g}^1\to\bigwedge^3 H_1(S_{g},\mathbb{Z})$, where $\mathcal{I}_{g}^1$ is the Torelli group of a closed, connected and oriented surface of genus $g$ with a boundary component and $S_g$ is the corresponding surface without a boundary component. This is known as the Johnson homomorphism.
We study the map induced by the Johnson homomorphism on rational homology groups and apply it to abelian cycles determined by disjoint bounding pair maps, in order to compute a large quotient of $H_n(\mathcal{I}_{g}^1,\mathbb{Q})$ in the stable range. This also implies an analogous result for the stable rational homology of the Torelli group $\mathcal{I}_{g,1}$ of a surface with a marked point instead of a boundary component. Further, we investigate how much of the image of this map is generated by images of such cycles and use this to prove that in the pointed case, they generate a proper subrepresentation of $H_n(\mathcal{I}_{g,1})$ for $n\ge 2$ and $g$ large enough.
We develop a theory of equivariant group presentations and relate them to the second homology group of a group. Our main application says that the second homology group of the Torelli subgroup of the mapping class group is finitely generated as an $Sp(2g,\mathbb{Z})$-module.
We prove a representation stability result for the second homology groups of Torelli subgroups of mapping class groups and automorphism groups of free groups. This strengthens the results of Boldsen-Hauge Dollerup and Day-Putman. We also prove a new representation stability result for the homology of certain congruence subgroups, partially improving upon the work of Putman-Sam. These results follow from a general theorem on syzygies of certain modules with finite polynomial degree.
Let IA_n be the Torelli subgroup of Aut(F_n). We give an explicit finite set of generators for H_2(IA_n) as a GL_n(Z)-module. Corollaries include a version of surjective representation stability for H_2(IA_n), the vanishing of the GL_n(Z)-coinvariants of H_2(IA_n), and the vanishing of the second rational homology group of the level l congruence subgroup of Aut(F_n). Our generating set is derived from a new group presentation for IA_n which is infinite but which has a simple recursive form.
In this paper we prove that the Rohlin invariant is the unique invariant inducing a homomorphism on the Torelli group. Using this result we generalize the construction of invariants of homology $3$-spheres from families of trivial 2-cocycles on the Torelli group given by Pitsch to include invariants with values on an abelian group with $2$-torsion.
By Torelli topology the author understands aspects of the topology of surfaces (potentially) relevant to the study of Torelli groups. The present paper is devoted to a new approach to the results of W. Vautaw about Dehn multi-twists in Torelli groups and abelian subgroups of Torelli groups. The new proofs are more transparent and lead to stronger estimates of the rank of an abelian subgroup when some additional information is available. An unexpected application of our methods is a new proof of the algebraic characterization of the Dehn twist about separating circles and the Dehn-Johnson twist…
These are the lecture notes for my course at the 2011 Park City Mathematics Graduate Summer School. The first two lectures covered the basics of the Torelli group and the Johnson homomorphism, and the third and fourth lectures discussed the second cohomology group of the level p congruence subgroup of the mapping class group, following my papers "The second rational homology group of the moduli space of curves with level structures" and "The Picard group of the moduli space of curves with level structures".
We develop an analogue of the Birman exact sequence for the Torelli subgroup of Aut(F_n). This builds on earlier work of the authors who studied an analogue of the Birman exact sequence for the entire group Aut(F_n). These results play an important role in the authors' recent work on the second homology group of the Torelli group.
Genus $g$ Torelli space is the moduli space of genus $g$ curves of compact type equipped with a homology framing. The hyperelliptic locus is a closed analytic subvariety consisting of finitely many mutually isomorphic components. We use properties of the hyperelliptic Torelli group to show that when $g\geq 3$ these components do not have the homotopy type of a finite CW complex. Specifically, we show that the second rational homology of each component is infinite-dimensional. We give a more detailed description of the topological features of these components when $g=3$ using properties of genu…
By Torelli topology the author understands aspects of the topology of surfaces (potentially) relevant to the study of Torelli groups. The extension problem in Torelli topology is the problem of determining when a diffeomorphism of compact connected subsurface of a closed surface can be extended to a diffeomorphism of the whole surface acting trivially on its homology. The special case of extensions by the identity diffeomorphism was considered by A. Putman, whose work was one of the main sources of inspiration for the present paper. It turns out that the answer depends on the position of the s…
We apply mapping class group techniques and trisections to study intersection forms of smooth 4-manifolds. Johnson defined a well-known homomorphism from the Torelli group of a compact surface. Morita later showed that every homology 3-sphere can be obtained from the standard Heegaard decomposition of $S^3$ by regluing according to a map in the kernel of this homomorphism. We prove an analogous result for trisections of 4-manifolds. Specifically, if $X$ and $Y$ admit handle decompositions without 1- or 3-handles and have isomorphic intersection forms, then a trisection of $Y$ can be obtained f…
For any surface $Σ$ of infinite topological type, we study the Torelli subgroup ${\mathcal I}(Σ)$ of the mapping class group ${\rm MCG}(Σ)$, whose elements are those mapping classes that act trivially on the homology of $Σ$. Our first result asserts that ${\mathcal I}(Σ)$ is topologically generated by the subgroup of ${\rm MCG}(Σ)$ consisting of those elements in the Torelli group which have compact support. In particular, using results of Birman, Powell, and Putman we deduce that ${\mathcal I}(Σ)$ is topologically generated by separating twists and bounding pair maps. Next, we prove the abstr…
An expansion of the Jones representation of genus 2 and the Torelli group
本文研究VFR Jones [Annals of Math.126（1987）335-388]构造的亏格为2的闭定向曲面的映射类群表示的代数性质。它起源于Artin的6弦辫群的Iwahori-Hecke代数表示，并定义在整数Laurent多项式Z[t，t^{-1}]上。我们用-e^{h}代替参数t，然后在泰勒级数中展开幂e^h。这种扩展自然地导致Torelli群上的过滤，该过滤比其下中心序列更粗糙。给出了伴随分次同态的结构的一些结果，包括第二Johnson同态因子通过表示的结果。作为应用，我们还讨论了它与同调三维球面的Casson不变量的关系.
We define an integer-valued invariant of special cube complexes called the genus, and prove that having genus one characterizes special cube complexes with abelian fundamental group. Using the genus, we obtain a new proof that the fundamental group of a special cube complex is either free abelian or surjects onto a non-cyclic free group. We also investigate automorphisms of special cube complexes, and give a new geometric proof that the Torelli subgroup for a right-angled Artin group is torsion-free.
We construct a series of homomorphisms from the $Y$-filtration on the monoid of homology cylinders to torsion modules via the mod $\mathbb{Z}$ reduction of the LMO functor. The restriction of our homomorphism to the lower central series of the Torelli group does not factor through Morita's refinement of the Johnson homomorphism. We use it to show that the abelianization of the Johnson kernel of a closed surface has torsion elements. We also determine the third graded quotient $Y_3\mathcal{IC}_{g,1}/Y_4$ of the $Y$-filtration.
We show that the closure of the compactly supported mapping class group of an infinite type surface is not perfect and that its abelianization contains a direct summand isomorphic to an uncountable direct sum of rationals. We also extend this to the Torelli group and show that in the case of surfaces with infinite genus the abelianization of the Torelli group contains an indivisible copy of an uncountable free abelian group as well. Finally we give an application to the question of automatic continuity by exhibiting discontinuous homomorphisms to the rationals.
