Linear representation stable bounds for the integral cohomology of pure mapping class groups (Q2295721)

The paper under review is a contribution to the calculation of the cohomology of the pure mapping class groups of surfaces. Let \(\Sigma^n_{g, r}\) denote a compact, connected, orientable surface of genus \(g\), with \(r\) boundary components, and \(n\) punctures \(P = \{ p_1, p_2, \ldots, p_n \}\) (possibly empty). Let \(N^n_{g, r}\) denote the non-orientable case. Let \(\mathrm{Diff}(\Sigma, P)\) denote the group of (orientation-preserving) diffeomorphisms \(h : \Sigma \to \Sigma\) with \(h[P] = P\) that furthermore restrict to the identity on the boundary. Let \({\mathrm{Mod}}^n(\Sigma)\) denote the mapping class group of isotopy classes of \(\mathrm{Diff}(\Sigma, P)\) and \({\mathrm{PMod}}^n (\Sigma)\) the pure mapping class group arising from diffeomorphisms fixing each \(p_i\). The symbol \(\Sigma\) alone denotes either an orientable or a non-orientable surface in this paper. Proven is the following result. Consider either \begin{itemize} \item[(1)] \(\Sigma = S^2\), \(T\), \(\Sigma^1_1\), or \(\Sigma = \Sigma_{g, r}\) with \(2g + r > 2\) (in the orientable case), or \item[(2)] \(\Sigma = {\mathbb{R}}P^2\), \(K\), or \(\Sigma = N_{g, r}\) with \(g \geq 3\) and \(r \geq 0\) (in the non-orientable case). \end{itemize} Let \(k \geq 0\) and define \(\lambda =1\) in the orientable case, \(\lambda = 0\) in the non-orientable case. For a field \(\mathbb{F}\), there are polynomials \(p^{\Sigma}_{k, {\mathbb{F}}}\) of degree at most \(2k\) such that \[ \dim_{\mathbb{F}} H^k ({\mathrm{PMod}}^n (\Sigma); {\mathbb{F}}) = p^{\Sigma}_{k, {\mathbb{F}}}(n) \] if \(n > {\mathrm{max}} \{ -1, \ 16k - 4 \lambda - 2 \}\) and for all \(n \geq 0\) if \(\Sigma\) has nonempty boundary. Moreover, the natural map \[ {\mathrm{Ind}}^{S_n}_{S_{n-1}} H^k ({\mathrm{PMod}}^{n-1} (\Sigma); {\mathbb{Z}}) \to H^k ({\mathrm{PMod}}^{n} (\Sigma); {\mathbb{Z}}) \] is surjective for \(n > \max \{ 0, 18k - 4 \lambda - 1 \}\). Here \(S_n\) denotes the symmetric group on \(n\) elements. Explicit bounds for the presentation degree of the integral cohomology of classifying spaces \(B{\mathrm{PDiff}}^n (M)\) of pure diffeomorphism groups of manifolds \(M\) of dimension \(d \geq 2\) are obtained by applying arguments from [\textit{T. Church} et al., Adv. Math. 333, 1--40 (2018; Zbl 1392.15030)] to spectral sequences arising from fibrations that relate the classifying spaces of groups of pure diffeomorphisms with configuration spaces. With \(\Sigma\) as before, it is proven that the decomposition of \(H^k ({\mathrm{PMod}}^n (\Sigma); {\mathbb{Q}})\) into \(S_n\) representations stabilizes in the sense of uniform representation stability [\textit{T. Church} and \textit{B. Farb}, Adv. Math. 245, 250--314 (2013; Zbl 1300.20051)] for certain large values of \(n\). This recovers known results for orientable surfaces and offers new representation stability results for non-orientable surfaces.