The co-Hopfian property of the Johnson kernel and the Torelli group. (Q2393575)

It is known that any simplicial automorphism of the curve complex \(\mathcal C(S)\) of a compact orientable surface \(S\) is induced by an element of the extended mapping class group \(\text{Mod}^*(S)\) of the surface. A `superinjective' map of the curve complex is defined as a simplicial map preserving non-adjacency of any two vertices of the curve complex. Such a map is injective and also known to be surjective, and hence induced by an element of \(\text{Mod}^*(S)\); this leads to the co-Hopfian property of any finite index subgroup of \(\text{Mod}^*(S)\). In the present paper the complex \(\mathcal C_s(S)\) of seperating curves of a surface is considered: it is shown that, excluding finitely many surfaces, any superinjective map from \(\mathcal C_s(S)\) to itself is induced by an element of \(\text{Mod}^*(S)\) and, as a consequence, that any finite index subgroup of the Johnson kernel is co-Hopfian where the Johnson kernel is the subgroup of \(\text{Mod}^*(S)\) generated by all Dehn twists about seperating curves on the surface. Analogous properties are shown for the Torelli complex and the Torelli group, generated by all Dehn twists about seperating curves and also bounding pairs of curves on the surface.