The Farrell-Jones conjecture for mapping class groups (Q1725699)

The Farrell-Jones conjecture for a group \(G\) says that the \(K\)- and \(L\)- theoretic assembly map, with respect to the family of virtually cyclic subgroups, is an isomorphism for every ring (with involution). It implies the Borel and the Novikov conjecture. For more details see [\textit{W. Lück} and \textit{H. Reich}, in: Handbook of K-theory. Vol. 1 and 2. Berlin: Springer. 703--842 (2005; Zbl 1120.19001)]. As the title suggests, the authors prove the Farrell-Jones conjecture for mapping class groups. More precisely, they show that the action of the mapping class group on the Thurston compactification of Teichmüller space is finitely \(\mathcal{F}\)-amenable. Here, the family \(\mathcal{F}\) consists of virtual point stabilizers. The axiomatic condition of \(\mathcal{F}\)-amenability was introduced by \textit{A. Bartels} [Compos. Math. 153, No. 4, 745--779 (2017; Zbl 1366.18012)] building on the definition of wide covers from [\textit{A. Bartels} et al., Invent. Math. 172, No. 1, 29--70 (2008; Zbl 1143.19003)]. Knowing that the action on the Thurston compactification is finitely \(\mathcal{F}\)-amenable, the Farrell-Jones conjecture is derived by an induction on the complexity of the surface. A similar induction has been used for \(\mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb{Z})\) [\textit{A. Bartels} et al., Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 119, 97--125 (2014; Zbl 1300.19001)]. The proof uses the idea of coarse flow spaces from [\textit{A. Bartels}, Compos. Math. 153, No. 4, 745--779 (2017; Zbl 1366.18012)] together with the Masur-Minsky notion of subsurface projection and the projection axioms from [\textit{M. Bestvina} et al., Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 122, 1--64 (2015; Zbl 1372.20029)].