We prove that both the hyperelliptic mapping class group and the extended hyperelliptic mapping class group are generated by two torsion elements. We also compute the index of the subgroup of the hyperelliptic mapping class group which is generated by involutions and we prove that the extended hyperelliptic mapping class group is generated by three orientation reversing involutions.
We prove that the hyperelliptic mapping class group of a nonorientable surface of genus $g\geq 4$ has a faithful linear representation of dimension $g^2-1$ over $\mathbb{R}$.
We obtain a simple presentation of the hyperelliptic mapping class group $M^h(N)$ of a nonorientable surface N. As an application we compute the first homology group of $M^h(N)$ with coefficients in $H_1(N;Z)$.
In this paper, we discuss relations among several invariants of 3-manifolds including Meyer's function, the eta-invariant, the von Neumann rho-invariant and the Casson invariant from the viewpoint of the mapping class group of a surface.
We classify up to conjugacy the group generated by a commuting pair of a periodic diffeomorphism and a hyperelliptic involution on an oriented closed surface. This result can be viewed as a refinement of Ishizaka's result on classification of the mapping classes of hyperelliptic periodic diffeomorphisms. As an application, we obtain the Dehn twist presentations of hyperelliptic periodic mapping classes, which are closely related to the ones obtained by Ishizaka.
We give a new upper bound on the stable commutator length of Dehn twists in hyperelliptic mapping class groups, and determine the stable commutator length of some elements. We also calculate values and the defects of homogeneous quasimorphisms derived from ω-signatures, and show that they are linearly independent in the mapping class groups of pointed 2-spheres when the number of points is small.
The period mapping assigns to each rank n, marked metric graph Gamma a positive definite quadratic form on H_1(Gamma). This defines maps Phi* and Phi on Culler--Vogtmann's outer space CV_n, and its Torelli space quotient T_n, respectively. The map Phi is a free group analog of the classical period mapping that sends a marked Riemann surface to its Jacobian. In this paper, we analyze the fibers of Phi in T_n, showing that they are aspherical, pi_1-injective subspaces. Metric graphs admitting a 'hyperelliptic involution' play an important role in the structure of Phi, leading us to define the hy…
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…
This paper contains two topics, the index of a power subgroup in the mapping class group $\mathcal{M}(0,2n)$ of a $2n$-punctured sphere and in the hyperelliptic mapping class group $Δ(g,0)$ of an oriented closed surface of genus $g$. The main tool is a projective representation of $\mathcal{M}(0,2n)$ obtained through the Kauffman bracket skein module. For $\mathcal{M}(0,2n)$, we prove that the normal closure of the fifth power of a half-twist has infinite index. This is the remaining case of a Masbaum's work. For $Δ(g,0)$, we consider the normal closure of $m$-th powers of Dehn twists along al…
In this paper, we study a series of $L^2$-torsion invariants from the viewpoint of the mapping class group of a surface. We establish some vanishing theorems for them. Moreover we explicitly calculate the first two invariants and compare them with hyperbolic volumes.
The hyperelliptic Torelli group is the subgroup of the mapping class group consisting of elements that act trivially on the homology of the surface and that also commute with some fixed hyperelliptic involution. We prove a Birman exact sequence for hyperelliptic Torelli groups, and we show that this sequence splits. As a consequence, we show that the hyperelliptic Torelli group is generated by Dehn twists if and only if it is generated by reducible elements. We also give an application to the kernel of the Burau representation.
We prove that for genus $g=3,4$, the extended mapping class group $\text{Mod}^{\pm}(S_g)$ can be generated by two elements of finite orders. But for $g=1$, $\text{Mod}^{\pm}(S_1)$ cannot be generated by two elements of finite orders.
We consider the hyperelliptic handlebody group on a closed surface of genus $g$. This is the subgroup of the mapping class group on a closed surface of genus $g$ consisting of isotopy classes of homeomorphisms on the surface that commute with some fixed hyperelliptic involution and that extend to homeomorphisms on the handlebody. We prove that the logarithm of the minimal dilatation (i.e, the minimal entropy) of all pseudo-Anosov elements in the hyperelliptic handlebody group of genus $g$ is comparable to $1/g$. This means that the asymptotic behavior of the minimal pseudo-Anosov dilatation of…
Let $S_g$ be the closed oriented surface of genus g and let $\text{Mod}(S_g)$ be the mapping class group. When the genus is at least 3, $\text{Mod}(S_g)$ can be generated by torsion elements. We prove the follow results. For $g \geq 4$, $\text{Mod}(S_g)$ can be generated by 4 torsion elements. Three generators are involutions and the forth one is an order 3 element. $\text{Mod}(S_3)$ can be generated by 5 torsion elements. Four generators are involutions and the fifth one is an order 3 element.
The hyperelliptic Torelli group is the subgroup of the mapping class group consisting of elements that act trivially on the homology of the surface and that also commute with some fixed hyperelliptic involution. The authors and Putman proved that this group is generated by Dehn twists about separating curves fixed by the hyperelliptic involution. In this paper, we introduce an algorithmic approach to factoring a wide class of elements of the hyperelliptic Torelli group into such Dehn twists, and apply our methods to several basic elements.
This paper describes a family of pseudo-Anosov braids with small dilatation. The smallest dilatations occurring for braids with 3, 4 and 5 strands appear in this family. A pseudo-Anosov braid with 2g+1 strands determines a hyperelliptic mapping class with the same dilatation on a genus-g surface. Penner showed that logarithms of least dilatations of pseudo-Anosov maps on a genus-g surface grow asymptotically with the genus like 1/g, and gave explicit examples of mapping classes with dilatations bounded above by log 11/g. Bauer later improved this bound to log 6/g. The braids in this paper give…
We prove that the mapping class group $\mathcal{M}(N_g)$ of a closed nonorientable surface of genus $g$ different than 4 is generated by three torsion elements. Moreover, for every even integer $k\ge 12$ and $g$ of the form $g=pk+2q(k-1)$ or $g=pk+2q(k-1)+1$, where $p,q$ are non-negative integers and $p$ is odd, $\mathcal{M}(N_g)$ is generated by three conjugate elements of order $k$. Analogous results are proved for the subgroup of $\mathcal{M}(N_g)$ generated by Dehn twists.
We prove that the mapping class group of a closed connected orientable surface of genus $g$ is generated by two elements of order $g$ for $g\geq 6$. Moreover, for $g\geq 7$ we found a generating set of two elements, of order $g$ and $g'$ which is the least divisor of $g$ such that $g'>2$. Furthermore, we proved that it is generated by two elements of order $g/\gcd (g,k)$ for $g\geq 3k^2+4k+1$ and any positive integer $k$.
We show that the normal closure of any periodic element of the mapping class group of a non-orientable surface whose order is greater than 2 contains the commutator subgroup, which for $g\geq 7$ is equal to the twist subgroup, and provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the normal closures of involutions to contain the twist subgroup. Finally, we provide a criterion for a periodic element to normally generate $\mathcal{M}(N_g)$ and give examples.
We explicitly describe the Teichmuller space TH_n of hyperelliptic surfaces in terms of natural and effective coordinates as the space of certain (2n-6)-tuples of distinct points on the ideal boundary of the Poincare disc. We essentially use the concept of a simple earthquake which is a particular case of a Fenchel-Nielsen twist deformation. Such earthquakes generate a group that acts transitively on TH_n. This fact can be interpreted as a continuous analog of the well-known Dehn theorem saying that the mapping class group is generated by Dehn twists. We find a simple and effective criterion t…
We give a complete description of conjugacy classes of finite subgroups of the mapping class group of the sphere with r marked points. As a corollary we obtain a description of conjugacy classes of maximal finite subgroups of the hyperelliptic mapping class group. In particular, we prove that for a fixed genus g there are at most five such classes.
We prove that the hyperelliptic Torelli group is generated by Dehn twists about separating curves that are preserved by the hyperelliptic involution. This verifies a conjecture of Hain. The hyperelliptic Torelli group can be identified with the kernel of the Burau representation evaluated at t=-1 and also the fundamental group of the branch locus of the period mapping, and so we obtain analogous generating sets for those. One application is that each component in Torelli space of the locus of hyperelliptic curves becomes simply connected when curves of compact type are added.
Given a finite set of $r$ points in a closed surface of genus $g$, we consider the torsion elements in the mapping class group of the surface leaving the finite set invariant. We show that the torsion elements generate the mapping class group if and only if $(g, r) \neq (2, 5k+4)$ for some integer $k$.
We show that the mapping class group of a closed oriented surface of genus at least three is generated by 3 elements of order 3 and by 4 elements of order 4. Note that the mapping class group cannot be generated by finitely many torsion elements of same order if genus is equal to one or two.
We show that for any periodic mapping class, there is some power which maps a nonseparating, simple closed curve to a distinct, disjoint nonseparating curve. As an application of this result, we introduce the notion of stable specific torsion length of a group element and show that the stable specific torsion length of a Dehn twist is bounded above by six.
Let SI(S_g) denote the hyperelliptic Torelli group of a closed surface S_g of genus g. This is the subgroup of the mapping class group of S_g consisting of elements that act trivially on H_1(S_g;Z) and that commute with some fixed hyperelliptic involution of S_g. We prove that the cohomological dimension of SI(S_g) is g-1 when g > 0. We also show that H_g-1(SI(S_g);Z) is infinitely generated when g > 1. In particular, SI(S_3) is not finitely presentable. Finally, we apply our main results to show that the kernel of the Burau representation of the braid group B_n at t = -1 has cohomological dim…
In this paper, we classify homomorphisms from the braid group of $n$ strands to the mapping class group of a genus $g$ surface. In particular, we show that when $g<n-2$, all representations are either cyclic or standard. Our result is sharp in the sense that when $g=n-2$, a generalization of the hyperelliptic representation appears, which is not cyclic or standard. This gives a classification of surface bundles over the configuration space of the complex plane. As a corollary, we partially recover the result of Aramayona-Souto, which classifies homomorphisms between mapping class groups, with …
Let $S_g$ be the closed oriented surface of genus g and let $\text{Mod}^{\pm}(S_g)$ be the extended mapping class group of $S_g$. When the genus is at least 5, we prove that $\text{Mod}^{\pm}(S_g)$ can be generated by two torsion elements. One of these generators is an order 2 element, and the other one is an order 4g+2 element.
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…
S. Bigelow proved that the braid groups are linear. That is, there is a faithful representation of the braid group into the general linear group of some field. Using this, we deduce from previously known results that the mapping class group of a sphere with punctures and hyperelliptic mapping class groups are linear. In particular, the mapping class group of a closed orientable surface of genus 2 is linear.
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…
We study the periods mapping from the moduli space of real hyperelliptic curves with marked point on an oriented oval to the euclidean space. The mapping arises in the analysis of Chebyshev construction used in the constrained optimization of the uniform norm of polynomials and rational functions. The decomposition of the moduli space into polyhedra labeled by planar graphs allows to investigate the global topology of low dimensional fibers of the periods mapping.
We showed that the twist subgroup of the mapping class group of a closed connected nonorientable surface of genus $g\geq13$ can be generated by two involutions and an element of order $g$ or $g-1$ depending on whether $g$ is odd or even respectively.
Let $N_g$ be the non-orientable surface with genus $g$, $\text{MCG}(N_g)$ be the mapping class group of $N_g$, $\mathcal{T}(N_g)$ be the index 2 subgroup generated by all Dehn twists of $\text{MCG}(N_g)$. We prove that for odd genus, $\mathcal{T}(N_g)$ can be generated by three elements of finite orders.
For each d>=2, the mapping class group for plane curves of degree d will be defined and it is proved that there exists uniquely the Meyer function on this group. In the case of d=4, using our Meyer function, we can define the local signature for 4-dimensional fiber spaces whose general fibers are non-hyperelliptic compact Riemann surfaces of genus 3. Some computations of our local signature will be given.
We give new upper bounds on the stable commutator lengths of Dehn twists in mapping class groups and new lower bounds on the stable commutator lengths of Dehn twists in hyperelliptic mapping class groups. In particular, we show that the stable commutator lengths of Dehn twists about a nonseparating and a separating curve on an oriented closed surface of genus 2 are not equal to each other.
We introduce non-acyclic $PGL_n(\mathbb{C})$-torsion of a 3-manifold with toroidal boundary as an extension of J. Porti's $PGL_2(\mathbb{C})$-torsion, and present an explicit formula of the $PGL_n(\mathbb{C})$-torsion of a mapping torus for a surface with punctures, by using the higher Teichmüler theory due to V. Fock and A. Goncharov. Our formula gives a concrete rational function which represents the torsion function and comes from a concrete cluster transformation associated with the mapping class.
We prove that a Kleinian group $G$ acting upon $\mathbb{H}^{n}$ admits a non-constant $G$-automorphic function, even if it has torsion elements, provided that the orders of the elliptic (torsion) elements are uniformly bounded. This is accomplished by developing a technique for mashing distinct fat triangulations while preserving fatness.
Birman-Lubotzky-McCarthy proved that any abelian subgroup of the mapping class groups for orientable surfaces is finitely generated. We apply Birman-Lubotzky-McCarthy's arguments to the mapping class groups for non-orientable surfaces. We especially find a finitely generated group isomorphic to a given torsion-free subgroup of the mapping class groups.
We present a formula expressing Earle's twisted 1-cocycle on the mapping class group of a closed oriented surface of genus >=2 relative to a fixed base point, with coefficients in the first homology group of the surface. For this purpose we compare it with Morita's twisted 1-cocycle which is combinatorial. The key is the computation of these cocycles on a particular element of the mapping class group, which is topologically a hyperelliptic involution.
We investigate the rigidity and asymptotic properties of quantum SU(2) representations of mapping class groups. In the spherical braid group case the trivial representation is not isolated in the family of quantum SU(2) representations. In particular, they may be used to give an explicit check that spherical braid groups and hyperelliptic mapping class groups do not have Kazhdan's property (T). On the other hand, the representations of the mapping class group of the torus do not have almost invariant vectors, in fact they converge to the metaplectic representation of SL(2,Z) on L^2(R). As a co…
Let Mod_{g,b} denote the mapping class group of a surface of genus g with b punctures. Feng Luo asked in a recent preprint if there is a universal upper bound, independent of genus, for the number of torsion elements needed to generate Mod_{g,b}. We answer Luo's question by proving that 3 torsion elements suffice to generate Mod_{g,0}. We also prove the more delicate result that there is an upper bound, independent of genus, not only for the number of torsion elements needed to generate Mod_{g,b} but also for the order of those elements. In particular, our main result is that 6 involutions (i.…
We introduce the palindromic automorphism group and the palindromic Torelli group of a right-angled Artin group A_G. The palindromic automorphism group Pi A_G is related to the principal congruence subgroups of GL(n,Z) and to the hyperelliptic mapping class group of an oriented surface, and sits inside the centraliser of a certain hyperelliptic involution in Aut(A_G). We obtain finite generating sets for Pi A_G and for this centraliser, and determine precisely when these two groups coincide. We also find generators for the palindromic Torelli group.
We provide a simple criterion for an element of the mapping class group of a closed surface to have normal closure equal to the whole mapping class group. We apply this to show that every nontrivial periodic mapping class that is not a hyperelliptic involution is a normal generator for the mapping class group when the genus is at least 3. We also give many examples of pseudo-Anosov normal generators, answering a question of D. D. Long. In fact we show that every pseudo-Anosov mapping class with stretch factor less than $\sqrt{2}$ is a normal generator. Even more, we give pseudo-Anosov normal g…
The purpose of this note is to explain a combinatorial description of closed smooth oriented 4-manifolds in terms of positive Dehn twist factorizations of surface mapping classes, and further explore these connections. This is obtained via monodromy representations of simplified broken Lefschetz fibrations on 4-manifolds, for which we provide an extension of Hurwitz moves that allows us to uniquely determine the isomorphism class of a broken Lefschetz fibration. We furthermore discuss broken Lefschetz fibrations whose monodromies are contained in special subgroups of the mapping class group; n…
A palindrome in a free group F_n is a word on some fixed free basis of F_n that reads the same backwards as forwards. The palindromic automorphism group ΠA_n of the free group F_n consists of automorphisms that take each member of some fixed free basis of F_n to a palindrome; the group ΠA_n has close connections with hyperelliptic mapping class groups, braid groups, congruence subgroups of GL(n,Z), and symmetric automorphisms of free groups. We obtain a generating set for the subgroup of ΠA_n consisting of those elements acting trivially on the abelianisation of F_n, the palindromic Torelli gr…
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.
For any positive integer $n$, we exhibit a cofinite subgroup $Γ_n$ of the mapping class group of a surface of genus at most two such that $Γ_n$ admits an epimorphism onto a free group of rank $n$. We conclude that $H^1(Γ_n;\Z)$ has rank at least $n$ and the dimension of the second bounded cohomology of each of these mapping class groups is the cardinality of the continuum. In the case of genus two, the groups $Γ_n$ can be chosen not to contain the Torelli group. Similarly for hyperelliptic mapping class groups. We also exhibit an automorphism of a subgroup of finite index in the mapping class …
For $g \ge 5$, we give a complete classification of the connected components of strata of abelian differentials over Teichmüller space, establishing an analogue of Kontsevich and Zorich's classification of their components over moduli space. Building off of work of the first author (arXiv:1901.05482), we find that the non-hyperelliptic components are classified by an invariant known as an $r$-spin structure. This is accomplished by computing a certain monodromy group valued in the mapping class group. To do this, we determine explicit finite generating sets for all $r$-spin stabilizer subgroup…