An action of subgroups of mapping class groups on polynomial algebras

We study a certain subgroup of the mapping class group of a surface with boundary by obtaining an action of this subgroup on a polynomial algebra. This action comes from a lift of the action of the subgroup on a trace algebra, Magnus having done a similar thing for the braid groups. We then investigate the invariant theory for this action and various representations that this action affords. In particular, we obtain finite permutation representations and infinite linear representations of these subgroups that are non-trivial on subgroups of the Torelli group.     

Actions and irreducible representations of the mapping class group

Let G be a countable discrete group. Call two subgroups and of G commensurable if has finite index in both and . We say that an action of G on a discrete set X has noncommensurable stabilizers if the stabilizers of any two distinct points of X are not commensurable. We prove in this paper that the action of the map ping class group on the complex of curves has noncommensurable stabilizers. Following a method due to Burger and de la Harpe, this action leads to constructions of irreducible unitary representations of the mapping class group. Received: 26 July 1999 / Revised version: 14 May 2001 / Published online: 19 October 2001     

The non-orientable genus of some metacyclic groups

We describe non-orientable, octagonal embeddings for certain 4-valent, bipartite Cayley graphs of finite metacyclic groups, and give a class of examples for which this embedding realizes the non-orientable genus of the group. This yields a construction of Cayley graphs for which is arbitrarily large, where and are the orientable genus and the non-orientable genus of the Cayley graph.Work supported in part by the Research Council of Slovenia, Yugoslavia and NSF Contract DMS-8717441.Supported by NSF Contract DMS-8601760.     

A presentation of mapping class groups in terms of Artin groups and geometric monodromy of singularities

From Wajnryb's presentation, we extract a simple presentation of the mapping class group of the genus g surface as a quotient of an Artin group by simple relations among the centers of sub-Artin groups. Topological meanings are given by using deformation of simple singularities. Received: 22 January 1998 / in final form: 16 February 1999     

Groupoid extensions of mapping class representations for bordered surfaces

The mapping class group of a surface with one boundary component admits numerous interesting representations including a representation as a group of automorphisms of a free group and as a group of symplectic transformations. Insofar as the mapping class group can be identified with the fundamental group of Riemann's moduli space, it is furthermore identified with a subgroup of the fundamental path groupoid upon choosing a basepoint. A combinatorial model for this, the mapping class groupoid, arises from the invariant cell decomposition of Teichmüller space, whose fundamental path groupoid is called the Ptolemy groupoid. It is natural to try to extend representations of the mapping class group to the mapping class groupoid, i.e., to construct a homomorphism from the mapping class groupoid to the same target that extends the given representations arising from various choices of basepoint.Among others, we extend both aforementioned representations to the groupoid level in this sense, where the symplectic representation is lifted both rationally and integrally. The techniques of proof include several algorithms involving fatgraphs and chord diagrams. The former extension is given by explicit formulae depending upon six essential cases, and the kernel and image of the groupoid representation are computed. Furthermore, this provides groupoid extensions of any representation of the mapping class group that factors through its action on the fundamental group of the surface including, for instance, the Magnus representation and representations on the moduli spaces of flat connections.     

Malcev presentations for subsemigroups of direct products of coherent groups

The direct product of a free group and a polycyclic group is known to be coherent. This paper shows that every finitely generated subsemigroup of the direct product of a virtually free group and an abelian group admits a finite Malcev presentation. (A Malcev presentation is a presentation of a special type for a semigroup that embeds into a group. A group is virtually free if it contains a free subgroup of finite index.) By considering the direct product of two free semigroups, it is also shown that polycyclic groups, unlike nilpotent groups, can contain finitely generated subsemigroups that do not admit finite Malcev presentations.     

On loxodromic actions of Artin–Tits groups

Artin–Tits groups act on a certain delta-hyperbolic complex, called the “additional length complex”. For an element of the group, acting loxodromically on this complex is a property analogous to the property of being pseudo-Anosov for elements of mapping class groups. By analogy with a well-known conjecture about mapping class groups, we conjecture that “most” elements of Artin–Tits groups act loxodromically. More precisely, in the Cayley graph of a subgroup G of an Artin–Tits group, the proportion of loxodromically acting elements in a ball of large radius should tend to one as the radius tends to infinity. In this paper, we give a condition guaranteeing that this proportion stays away from zero. This condition is satisfied e.g. for Artin–Tits groups of spherical type, their pure subgroups and some of their commutator subgroups.     

Characters of Quantum Groups of Type A n

A presentation for an arbitrary group extension is well known. A generalization of the work by Conway et al. (Group Tensor1972, 25, 405–418) on central extensions has been given by Baik et al. (J. Group Theor.). As an application of this we discuss necessary and sufficient conditions for the presentation of the central extension to be p-Cockcroft, where p is a prime or 0. Finally, we present some examples of this result.     

On the automorphism group of the asymptotic pants complex of an infinite surface of genus zero

The braided Thompson group is an asymptotic mapping class group of a sphere punctured along the standard Cantor set, endowed with a rigid structure. Inspired from the case of finite type surfaces we consider a Hatcher–Thurston cell complex whose vertices are asymptotically trivial pants decompositions. We prove that the automorphism group of this complex is also an asymptotic mapping class group in a weaker sense. Moreover is obtained by by first adding new elements called half‐twists and further completing it.     

The <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-Cockcroft Property of Central Extensions of Groups II

In [6], ?evik defined necessary and sufficient conditions for the presentation of a central extension of a cyclic group by an ordinary group to be p-Cockcroft, where p is a prime or 0. In this paper, as a next step of this above result, we will define the p-Cockcroft property for the presentation of a central extension of an abelian group by any group. Finally, as an application of the main result, we will present an example.     

Probability that the commutator of two group elements is equal to a given element

In this paper we study the probability that the commutator of two randomly chosen elements in a finite group is equal to a given element of that group. Explicit computations are obtained for groups G which |G^′| is prime and G^′≤Z(G) as well as for groups G which |G^′| is prime and G^′∩Z(G)=1. This paper extends results of Rusin [see D.J. Rusin, What is the probability that two elements of a finite group commute? Pacific J. Math. 82 (1) (1979) 237-247].     

The complex of pant decompositions of a surface

We exhibit a set of edges (moves) and 2-cells (relations) making the complex of pant decompositions on a surface a simply connected complex. Our construction, unlike the previous ones, keeps the arguments concerning the structural transformations independent from those deriving from the action of the mapping class group. The moves and the relations turn out to be supported in subsurfaces with 3g−3+n=1,2 (where g is the genus and n is the number of boundary components), illustrating in this way the so-called Grothendieck principle.     

Determining whether a finite group of outer automorphisms of a free group is geometric

In this article we give necessary and sufficient conditions for a given finite group of outer automorphisms to be induced by the action of a group of orientation-preserving homeomorphisms on the fundamental group of a punctured surface. When the group is abelian, necessary and sufficient conditions can also be given in the absence of orientability assumptions. These properties are formulated in terms of the finite automorphism groups which project into the given outer automorphism group: each non-trivial automorphism in any such group can fix at most a cyclic subgroup of the fundamental group.     

Outer automorphism groups of certain 1-relator groups

Grossman first showed that outer automorphism groups of 1-relator groups given by orientable surface groups are residually finite, whence mapping class groups of orientable surfaces are residually finite. Allenby, Kim and Tang showed that outer automorphism groups of cyclically pinched 1-relator groups are residually finite, whence mapping class groups of orientable and non-orientable surfaces are residually finite. In this paper we show that outer automorphism groups of certain conjugacy separable 1-relator groups are residually finite.     

On connected transversals to abelian subgroups and loop theoretical consequences

In this paper one of our questions is the following: Which finite abelian groups are (are not) isomorphic to inner mapping groups of loops? It is well known that if the inner mapping group of a finite loop Q is abelian, then Q is centrally nilpotent. The other question is: Which properties of abelian inner mapping groups imply the central nilpotency of class at most two of the loop? After reminding the reader of the known results we show new ones. To solve these problems we transform them into group theoretical problems, then using connected transversals we get some answer. Received: 1 December 2004; revised: 8 November 2005     

Perverse coherent sheaves and the geometry of special pieces in the unipotent variety

Let X be a scheme of finite type over a Noetherian base scheme S admitting a dualizing complex, and let U⊂X be an open set whose complement has codimension at least 2. We extend the Deligne-Bezrukavnikov theory of perverse coherent sheaves by showing that a coherent intermediate extension (or intersection cohomology) functor from perverse sheaves on U to perverse sheaves on X may be defined for a much broader class of perversities than has previously been known. We also introduce a derived category version of the coherent intermediate extension functor.Under suitable hypotheses, we introduce a construction (called “S₂-extension”) in terms of perverse coherent sheaves of algebras on X that takes a finite morphism to U and extends it in a canonical way to a finite morphism to X. In particular, this construction gives a canonical “S₂-ification” of appropriate X. The construction also has applications to the “Macaulayfication” problem, and it is particularly well-behaved when X is Gorenstein.Our main goal, however, is to address a conjecture of Lusztig on the geometry of special pieces (certain subvarieties of the unipotent variety of a reductive algebraic group). The conjecture asserts in part that each special piece is the quotient of some variety (previously unknown for the exceptional groups and in positive characteristic) by the action of a certain finite group. We use S₂-extension to give a uniform construction of the desired variety.     

Interaction cohomology of forward or backward self-similar systems

We investigate the dynamics of forward or backward self-similar systems (iterated function systems) and the topological structure of their invariant sets. We define a new cohomology theory (interaction cohomology) for forward or backward self-similar systems. We show that under certain conditions, the space of connected components of the invariant set is isomorphic to the inverse limit of the spaces of connected components of the realizations of the nerves of finite coverings U of the invariant set, where each U consists of (backward) images of the invariant set under elements of finite word length. We give a criterion for the invariant set to be connected. Moreover, we give a sufficient condition for the first cohomology group to have infinite rank. As an application, we obtain many results on the dynamics of semigroups of polynomials. Moreover, we define postunbranched systems and we investigate the interaction cohomology groups of such systems. Many examples are given.     

On the low-lying zeros of Hasse-Weil L-functions for elliptic curves

In this paper, we obtain an unconditional density theorem concerning the low-lying zeros of Hasse-Weil L-functions for a family of elliptic curves. From this together with the Riemann hypothesis for these L-functions, we infer the majorant of 27/14 (which is strictly less than 2) for the average rank of the elliptic curves in the family under consideration. This upper bound for the average rank enables us to deduce that, under the same assumption, a positive proportion of elliptic curves have algebraic ranks equaling their analytic ranks and finite Tate-Shafarevich group. Statements of this flavor were known previously [M.P. Young, Low-lying zeros of families of elliptic curves, J. Amer. Math. Soc. 19 (1) (2005) 205-250] under the additional assumptions of GRH for Dirichlet L-functions and symmetric square L-functions which are removed in the present paper.