Big Handlebody Distance Implies Finite Mapping Class Group

Mapping class groups of medium distance Heegaard splittings

We show that if the Hempel distance of a Heegaard splitting is larger than three then the mapping class group of the Heegaard splitting is isomorphic to a subgroup of the mapping class group of the ambient 3-manifold. This implies that given two handlebody sets in the curve complex for a surface that are distance at least four apart, the group of automorphisms of the curve complex that preserve both handlebody sets is finite.

On finite groups of isometries of handlebodies in arbitrary dimensions and finite extensions of Schottky groups

It is known that the order of a finite group of diffeomorphisms of a 3-dimensional handlebody of genus g > 1 is bounded by the linear polynomial 12(g-1), and that the order of a finite group of diffeomorphisms of a 4-dimensional handlebody (or equivalently, of its boundary 3-manifold), faithful on the fundamental group, is bounded by a quadratic polynomial in g (but not by a linear one). In the present paper we prove a generalization for handlebodies of arbitrary dimension d, uniformizing handlebodies by Schottky groups and considering finite groups of isometries of such handlebodies. We prove…

Primitive stable closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds

We show that closed 3-manifolds with high Heegaard distance and bounded subsurface Heegaard distance are primitive stable when they are regarded as representations from the free group corresponding to the handlebody. This implies that any point on the boundary of Schottky space can be approximated by primitive stable representations corresponding to closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds.

Four-dimensional symplectic cobordisms containing three-handles

We construct four-dimensional symplectic cobordisms between contact three-manifolds generalizing an example of Eliashberg. One key feature is that any handlebody decomposition of one of these cobordisms must involve three-handles. The other key feature is that these cobordisms contain chains of symplectically embedded two-spheres of square zero. This, together with standard gauge theory, is used to show that any contact three-manifold of non-zero torsion (in the sense of Giroux) cannot be strongly symplectically fillable. John Etnyre pointed out to the author that the same argument together wi…

Mapping class group dynamics on Aff(C)-characters

We prove that in genus bigger than $2$, the mapping class group action on $\mathrm{Aff}(\mathbb{C})$-characters is ergodic. This implies that almost every representation $π_1 S \longrightarrow \mathrm{Aff}(\mathbb{C})$ is the holonomy of a branched affine structure on $S$, where $S$ is a closed orientable surface of genus $g \geq 2$.

自由群与3-流形群乘积中的方程II：奥尔桑斯基满同态

Equations in Products of Free Groups and 3-Manifold Groups II: Olshanskii Epimorphisms

本文证明所有奥尔桑斯基满同态均为标准的，构造性处理了Q₈情形，给出哈拉兰波娃等人所宣布结果的详细证明，未使用佩雷尔曼定理等。