Area preserving group actions on surfaces (Q1426935)

The objective is to show that there are essentially no actions of \(\text{SL} (n, \mathbb{Z})\), \(n\geq 3\), on closed oriented surfaces which are symplectic or area preserving. The key ingredient is the fact that a finite index subgroup of \(\text{SL} (n, \mathbb{Z})\) with \(n \geq 3\) always contains a subgroup isomorphic to the three-dimensional integer Heisenberg Lie group. Thus, the main result is that, if an almost simple Lie group \(G\) contains a subgroup isomorphic to the three-dimensional integer Heisenberg Lie group, then every homomorphism from \(G\) to a closed oriented surface \(S\) factors through a finite group. Some of the proofs rely on mapping class group techniques that use hyperbolic geometry. Let \(\omega\) be a smooth volume form and \(\text{Diff}_{\omega}(S)\) denote the group of diffeomorphisms preserving \(\omega\). Factorizations results for \(n \geq 4\) were proved by B. Farb and P. Shalen for \(S\neq T^2\) and by J. Rebelo for \(S=T^2\). L. Polterovich obtained a factorization result for \(n \geq 3\) and \(S\) other than \(S^2\) and \(T^2\) and there is a similar result of D. Witte. At the end, the authors show some results for nilpotent Lie groups. They assume that \(G\) is a finitely generated nilpotent Lie subgroup of \(\text{Diff}_{\omega}(S)_0\). In this case, if \(S\neq S^2\) then \(G\) is abelian and if \(S= S^2\) then \(G\) has an abelian subgroup of index two. So, any finitely generated nilpotent subgroup \(G\) of \(\text{Diff}_{\omega}(S)\) has a finite index metabelian subgroup.