More Like this

1. Right-angled Artin groups as normal subgroups of mapping class groups

   https://doi.org/10.1112/S0010437X21007417  

   Clay, Matt; Mangahas, Johanna; Margalit, Dan (August 2021, Compositio Mathematica)

   We construct the first examples of normal subgroups of mapping class groups that are isomorphic to non-free right-angled Artin groups. Our construction also gives normal, non-free right-angled Artin subgroups of other groups, such as braid groups and pure braid groups, as well as many subgroups of the mapping class group, such as the Torelli subgroup. Our work recovers and generalizes the seminal result of Dahmani–Guirardel–Osin, which gives free, purely pseudo-Anosov normal subgroups of mapping class groups. We give two applications of our methods: (1) we produce an explicit proper normal subgroup of the mapping class group that is not contained in any level $$m$$ congruence subgroup and (2) we produce an explicit example of a pseudo-Anosov mapping class with the property that all of its even powers have free normal closure and its odd powers normally generate the entire mapping class group. The technical theorem at the heart of our work is a new version of the windmill apparatus of Dahmani–Guirardel–Osin, which is tailored to the setting of group actions on the projection complexes of Bestvina–Bromberg–Fujiwara. 

   more » « less
2. Pseudo-Anosov subgroups of general fibered 3–manifold groups

   https://doi.org/10.1090/btran/157  

   Leininger, Christopher; Russell, Jacob (August 2023, Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, Series B)

   We show that finitely generated and purely pseudo-Anosov subgroups of fundamental groups of fibered 3–manifolds with reducible monodromy are convex cocompact as subgroups of the mapping class group via the Birman exact sequence. Combined with results of Dowdall–Kent–Leininger and Kent–Leininger–Schleimer, this establishes the result for the image of all such fibered 3–manifold groups in the mapping class group. 

   more » « less
3. An Alexander method for infinite-type surfaces

   Roberta Shapiro (August 2022, New York journal of mathematics)

   The Alexander method is a combinatorial tool used to determine when two elements of the mapping class group are equal. In this paper we extend the Alexander method to include the case of infinite-type surfaces. Versions of the Alexander method were proven by Hernández--Morales--Valdez, Hernández--Hidber, and Dickmann. As sample applications, we verify a particular relation in the mapping class group, show that the centralizers of many twist subgroups of the mapping class group are trivial, and provide a simple basis for the topology of the mapping class group. 

   more » « less
4. Self-Similar Surfaces: Involutions and Perfection

   https://doi.org/10.1307/mmj/20216114  

   Malestein, Justin; Tao, Jing (July 2024, Michigan Mathematical Journal)

   We investigate the problem of when big mapping class groups are generated by involutions. Restricting our attention to the class of self-similar surfaces, which are surfaces with self-similar ends spaces, as defined by Mann and Rafi, and with 0 or infinite genus, we show that when the set of maximal ends is infinite, then the mapping class groups of these surfaces are generated by involutions, normally generated by a single involution, and uniformly perfect. In fact, we derive this statement as a corollary of the corresponding statement for the homeomorphism groups of these surfaces. On the other hand, among self-similar surfaces with one maximal end, we produce infinitely many examples in which their big mapping class groups are neither perfect nor generated by torsion elements. These groups also do not have the automatic continuity property. 

   more » « less
5. Surface Houghton groups

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s00208-023-02751-2  

   Aramayona, Javier; Bux, Kai-Uwe; Kim, Heejoung; Leininger, Christopher J. (November 2023, Mathematische Annalen)

   Abstract For every$$n\ge 2$$ $n\ge 2$, thesurface Houghton group$${\mathcal {B}}_n$$ $B_n$is defined as the asymptotically rigid mapping class group of a surface with exactlynends, all of them non-planar. The groups$${\mathcal {B}}_n$$ $B_n$are analogous to, and in fact contain, the braided Houghton groups. These groups also arise naturally in topology: every monodromy homeomorphism of a fibered component of a depth-1 foliation of closed 3-manifold is conjugate into some$${\mathcal {B}}_n$$ $B_n$. As countable mapping class groups of infinite type surfaces, the groups$$\mathcal {B}_n$$ $B_n$lie somewhere between classical mapping class groups and big mapping class groups. We initiate the study of surface Houghton groups proving, among other things, that$$\mathcal {B}_n$$ $B_n$is of type$$\text {F}_{n-1}$$ ${\text{F}}_{n-1}$, but not of type$$\text {FP}_{n}$$ ${\text{FP}}_n$, analogous to the braided Houghton groups. 

   more » « less