This paper presents fifteen problems about mapping class groups. It is an expanded and updated version of the author's preprint "Ten problems on the mapping class groups". The paper will appear in the book "Problems on Mapping Class Groups and Related Topics", ed. by B. Farb, Proc. Symp. Pure Math. series, Amer. Math. Soc.
We discuss a number of open problems about mapping class groups of surfaces. In particular, we discuss problems related to linearity, congruence subgroups, cohomology, pseudo-Anosov stretch factors, Torelli subgroups, and normal subgroups.
This paper presents a number of problems about mapping class groups and moduli space. The paper will appear in the book "Problems on Mapping Class Groups and Related Topics", ed. by B. Farb, Proc. Symp. Pure Math. series, Amer. Math. Soc.
For some $g \geq 3$, let $Γ$ be a finite index subgroup of the mapping class group of a genus $g$ surface (possibly with boundary components and punctures). An old conjecture of Ivanov says that the abelianization of $Γ$ should be finite. In this note, we prove two theorems supporting this conjecture. For the first, let $T_x$ denote the Dehn twist about a simple closed curve $x$. For some $n \geq 1$, we have $T_x^n \in Γ$. We prove that $T_x^n$ is torsion in the abelianization of $Γ$. Our second result shows that the abelianization of $Γ$ is finite if $Γ$ contains a "large chunk" (in a certain…
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.
Let f be a Z/2Z-spin structureon a closed surface S of genus g>3. We determine a generating set of the stabilizer of f in the mapping class group of S consisting of Dehn twists about an explicit collection of 2g+1 curves in S. If g=3 then we also determine a generating set of the stabilizer of an odd Z/2Z-spin structure consisting of Dehn twists about a collection of 6 curves.
The aim of this paper is to survey some known results about mapping class group quotients by powers of Dehn twists, related to their finite dimensional representations and to state some open questions. One can construct finite quotients of them, out of representations with Zariski dense images into semisimple Lie groups. We show that, in genus 2, the Fibonacci TQFT representation is actually a specialization of the Jones representation. Eventually, we explain a method of Long and Moody which provides large families of mapping class group representations.
We consider finite-sheeted, regular, possibly branched covering spaces of compact surfaces with boundary and the associated liftable and symmetric mapping class groups. In particular, we classify when either of these subgroups coincides with the entire mapping class group of the surface. As a consequence, we construct infinite families of non-geometric embeddings of the braid group into mapping class groups in the sense of Wajnryb. Indeed, our embeddings map standard braid generators to products of Dehn twists about curves forming chains of arbitrary length. As key tools, we use the Birman-Hil…
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.
In this article we survey, and make a few new observations about, the surprising connection between sub-monoids of mapping class groups and interesting geometry and topology in low-dimensions.
A proof of non-existence of Lagrangian embeddings of the Klein bottle K in \CP^2 is given. We exploit the existence of a special embedding of K in a symplectic Lefschetz pencil on \CP^2 and study its monodromy. As the main technical tool, we develop the theory of mapping class groups, considered as quotients of special Artin braid groups, and obtain some new results about combinatorial structure of such groups.
Let T(N) be the subgroup of the mapping class group of a nonorientable surface N (possibly with punctures and/or boundary components) generated by twists about two-sided circles. We obtain a simple generating set for T(N). As an application we compute the first homology group (abelianization) of T(N).
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…
This article first answers to questions about connectedness of a new family of graphs on unicellular maps. Answering these questions goes through a description of the mapping class group as surgeries on unicellular maps. We also show how unicellular maps encode subgroups of the mapping group and provide filtrations of the mapping class group. These facts add a layer on the ubiquitous character of unicellular maps.
On a compact oriented surface of genus $g$ with $n\geq 1$ boundary components, $δ_1, δ_2,\ldots, δ_n$, we consider positive factorizations of the boundary multitwist $t_{δ_1} t_{δ_2} \cdots t_{δ_n}$, where $t_{δ_i}$ is the positive Dehn twist about the boundary $δ_i$. We prove that for $g\geq 3$, the boundary multitwist $t_{δ_1} t_{δ_2}$ can be written as a product of arbitrarily large number of positive Dehn twists about nonseparating simple closed curves, extending a recent result of Baykur and Van Horn-Morris, who proved this result for $g\geq 8$. This fact has immediate corollaries on the …
In this paper we study the topology of the space of Riemann surfaces in a simply connected space X, S_{g,n} (X, γ). This is the space consisting of triples, (F_{g,n}, ϕ, f), where F_{g,n} is a Riemann surface of genus g and n-boundary components, ϕis a parameterization of the boundary, and f : F_{g,n} \to X is a continuous map that satisfies a boundary condition γ. We prove three theorems about these spaces. Our main theorem is the identification of the stable homology type of the space S_{\infty, n}(X; γ), defined to be the limit as the genus g gets large, of the spaces S_{g,n} (X; γ). Our re…
This article is the author's contribution to the volume "Problems on mapping class groups and related topics" which will be published in December 2006, with Benson Farb as Editor. Various individuals were invited by Farb to submit open problems which seemed interesting to them about surface mapping class groups. We singled out a particular recent development, Hempel's concept of the `Heegaard distance' of an element in the mapping class group, and used it to describe a number of open questions which relate to the correspondence between Heegaard surfaces in 3-manifolds and the mapping class gro…
Motivated by the work of Birman about the relationship between mapping class groups and braid groups, we discuss the relationship between the orbit braid group and the equivariant mapping class group on the closed surface $M$ with a free and proper group action in this article. Our construction is based on the exact sequence given by the fibration $\mathcal{F}_{0}^{G}M \rightarrow F(M/G,n)$. The conclusion is closely connected with the braid group of the quotient space. Comparing with the situation without the group action, there is a big difference when the quotient space is $\mathbb{T}^{2}$.
Given two Lagrangian spheres in an exact symplectic manifold, we find conditions under which the Dehn twists about them generate a free non-abelian subgroup of the symplectic mapping class group. This extends a result of Ishida for Riemann surfaces. The proof generalises the categorical version of Seidel's long exact sequence to arbitrary powers of a fixed Dehn twist. We also show that the Milnor fibre of any isolated degenerate hypersurface singularity contains such pairs of spheres.
In this paper, we calculate the p-torsion of the Farrell cohomology for low genus pure mapping class groups with punctures, where p is an odd prime. Here, `low genus' means g=1,2,3; and `pure mapping class groups with punctures' means the mapping class groups with any number of punctures, where the punctures are not allowed to be permuted. These calculations use our previous results about the periodicity of pure mapping class groups with punctures, as well as other cohomological tools. The low genus cases are interesting because we know that the high genus cases can be reduced to the low genus…
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…