Orientation-reversing free actions on handlebodies

We examine free orientation-reversing group actions on orientable handlebodies, and free actions on nonorientable handlebodies. A classification theorem is obtained, giving the equivalence classes and weak equivalence classes of free actions in terms of algebraic invariants that involve Nielsen equivalence. This is applied to describe the sets of free actions in various cases, including a complete classification for many (and conjecturally all) cases above the minimum genus. For abelian groups, the free actions are classified for all genera.     

Generating pairs and group actions

An action of a finite group on a closed 2-manifold is called almost free if it has a single orbit of points with nontrivial stabilizers. It is called large when the order of the group is greater than or equal to the genus of the surface. We prove that the orientation-preserving large almost free actions of G on closed orientable surfaces correspond to the Nielsen equivalence classes of generating pairs of G  . We classify the almost free actions on the surfaces of genera 3 and 4, find the large almost free actions of the alternating group _A5$A_5$, and give various other examples.     

Local indicability and relative presentations of groups

A relative presentation is a triple where A is a group, X is a set, and R is a set of words in the free product A∗F(X) where F(X) is the free group with basis X. Under certain hypotheses on the relative presentation , we show that (1) the group presented by is locally indicable; (2) the pre-aspherical model for is aspherical; (3) the Freiheitssatz holds for . The result has applications in the computation of cohomology of groups and the field of equations over groups.     

Extending homeomorphisms from punctured surfaces to handlebodies

Let Hg be a genus g handlebody and MCG2n(Tg) be the group of the isotopy classes of orientation preserving homeomorphisms of Tg=∂Hg, fixing a given set of 2n points. In this paper we find a finite set of generators for , the subgroup of MCG2n(Tg) consisting of the isotopy classes of homeomorphisms of Tg admitting an extension to the handlebody and keeping fixed the union of n disjoint properly embedded trivial arcs. This result generalizes a previous one obtained by the authors for n=1. The subgroup turns out to be important for the study of knots and links in closed 3-manifolds via (g,n)-decompositions. In fact, the links represented by the isotopy classes belonging to the same left cosets of in MCG2n(Tg) are equivalent.     

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.     

Free actions of virtually FC-groups

If an infinite group G admits a free action by a group of automorphisms A which is virtually an FC-group and which has only finitely many orbits, then G is isomorphic to the additive group of a field and the action is that of a group of semilinear transformations. Received: 21 February 2005     

On cyclic bra nched coverings of torus knots

We prove that then-fold cyclic coverings of the 3-sphere branched over the torus knotsK(p,q), p>q2 (i.e. the Brieskorn manifolds in the sense of [12]) admit spines corresponding to cyclic presentations of groups ifp1 (modq). These presentations include as a very particular case the Sieradski groups, first introduced in [14] and successively obtained from geometric constructions in [4], [9], and [15]. So our main theorem answers in affirmative to an open question suggested by the referee in [14]. Then we discuss a question concerning cyclic presentations of groups and Alexander polynomials of knots.Work Performed under the auspicies of the G.N.S.A.G.A. of the C.N.R. (National Research Council) of Italy and partially supported by the Ministero per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica of Italy Within the projectsGeometria Reale e Complessa andTopologia and by the Korean Science and Engineering Foundation.     

A presentation for the mapping class group of the closed non-orientable surface of genus 4

In [B. Szepietowski, A presentation for the mapping class group of a non-orientable surface from the action on the complex of curves, Osaka J. Math. 45 (2008) 283-326] we proposed a method of finding a finite presentation for the mapping class group of a non-orientable surface by using its action on the so called ordered complex of curves. In this paper we use this method to obtain an explicit finite presentation for the mapping class group of the closed non-orientable surface of genus 4. The set of generators in this presentation consists of 5 Dehn twists, 3 crosscap transpositions and one involution, and it can be immediately reduced to the generating set found by Chillingworth [D.R.J. Chillingworth, A finite set of generators for the homeotopy group of a non-orientable surface, Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. 65 (1969) 409-430].     

Controlled topology invariants of translation actions

We develop invariants Ωn of a translation action of a group on Rm analogous to the Bieri-Neumann-Strebel-Renz invariants Σn. The invariants Σn were defined to be the set of “directions” e∈_∂∞Rm such that a suitable universal G-space is (n−1)-connected over the half-spaces defined by e. We replace half-spaces by topologically more natural neighborhoods of e to obtain the new invariants Ωn. The invariants Σn and Ωn are related as follows: e∈Ωn if and only if every e^′ in an open -neighborhood of e lies in Σn.     

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.     

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.     

Free circle actions with contractible orbits on symplectic manifolds

We prove that closed symplectic four-manifolds do not admit any smooth free circle actions with contractible orbits, without assuming that the actions preserve the symplectic forms. In higher dimensions such actions by symplectomorphisms do exist, and we give explicit examples based on the constructions of FGM.     

Diagram rigidity for geometric amalgamations of free groups

In this paper, we show that a class of 2-dimensional locally CAT(-1) spaces is topologically rigid: isomorphism of the fundamental groups is equivalent to the spaces being homeomorphic. An immediate application of this result is a diagram rigidity theorem for certain amalgamations of free groups. The direct limits of two such amalgamations are isomorphic if and only if there is an isomorphism between the respective diagrams.     

Growth functions for semi-regular tilings of the hyperbolic plane

This paper studies the growth function, with respect to the generating set of edge identifications, of a surface group with fundamental domainD in the hyperbolic plane ann-gon whose angles alternate between /p and /q. The possibilities ofn,p andq for which a torsion-free surface group can have such a fundamental polygon are classified, and the growth functions are computed. Conditions are given for which the denominator of the growth function is a product of cyclotomic polynomials and a Salem polynomial.This work was supported in part by NSF Research Grants.     

Every finite semigroup is embeddable in a finite relatively free semigroup

The title result is proved by a Murskii-type embedding.Results on some related questions are also obtained. For instance, it is shown that every finitely generated semigroup satisfying an identity ξ^d=ξ^2d is embeddable in a relatively free semigroup satisfying such an identity, generally with a larger d; but that an uncountable semigroup may satisfy such an identity without being embeddable in any relatively free semigroup.It follows from known results that every finite group is embeddable in a finite relatively free group. It is deduced from this and the proof of the title result that a finite monoid S is embeddable by a monoid homomorphism in a finite (or arbitrary) relatively free monoid if and only if its group of invertible elements is either {e} or all of S.     

Asymptotic normality of the sample mean and covariances of evanescent fields in noise

We consider the asymptotic properties of the sample mean and the sample covariance sequence of a field composed of the sum of a purely indeterministic and evanescent components. The asymptotic normality of the sample mean and sample covariances is established. A Bartlett-type formula for the asymptotic covariance matrix of the sample covariances of this field, is derived.     

Finite maximal orientation reversing group actions on handlebodies and 3-manifolds

We study arbitrary (that is not necessarily orientation preserving) finite group actions on 3-dimensional orientable or nonorientable handlebodies of genus g. For g>1, the maximal possible order is 24(g−1); we characterize the corresponding groups of this order and also the occuring quotient orbifolds. Then we use this to study finite group actions of large order (with respect to the equivariant Heegaard genus g) on closed 3-manifolds, again concentrating on the maximal case of order 24(g−1). Our results extend corresponding results in the orientation preserving setting. Whereas for arbitrary finite group actions on handlebodies much more types of quotient orbifolds occur than in the orientation preserving case, it turns out that for closed 3-manifolds the situation is quite rigid, in contrast to the orientation preserving case where one has many possibilities to construct manifolds with large group actions.     

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.