Homological stability for the mapping class groups of non-orientable surfaces (Q2475978)

In this paper the author proves that the homology of \ the mapping class groups of non-orientable surfaces stabilizes with the genus of the surface and the stable homology is independent of the number of boundary components. For \(S_{n,r}\) a non-orientable surface of genus \(n\) with \(r\) boundary components, \(M_{n,r}=\Pi _{0}Diff(S_{n,r}rel\partial )\) the corresponding mapping class group, there is a stabilization map \(\alpha :M_{n,r}\rightarrow M_{n+1,r}\) for \(r\geq 1\), a map \(\beta :M_{n,r}\rightarrow M_{n,r+1}\) obtained by gluing a pair of pants to the surface and a map \(\delta :M_{n,r}\rightarrow M_{n,r-1}\) (a left inverse to \( \beta \) when \(r\geq 2\)). The main result of this paper is: Theorem A (Stability theorem): For any \(r\geq 1\), (1) \(\alpha _{i}:H_{i}\left( M_{n,r}; \mathbb{Z} \right) \rightarrow H_{i}\left( M_{n+1,r}; \mathbb{Z} \right) \) is surjective when \(n\geq 4i\) and an isomorphism when \(n\geq 4i+3\). (2) \(\beta _{i}:H_{i}\left( M_{n,r}; \mathbb{Z} \right) \rightarrow H_{i}\left( M_{n,r+1}; \mathbb{Z} \right) \) is an isomorphism when \(n\geq 4i+3\). (3) \(\delta _{i}:H_{i}\left( M_{n,1}; \mathbb{Z} \right) \rightarrow H_{i}\left( M_{n,0}; \mathbb{Z} \right) \) is surjective when \(n\geq 4i+1\) and an isomorphism when \(n\geq 4i+5 \). The result is proved using the action of the mapping class group on complexes of arcs and circles in the surfaces. Combining her results with the work of Madsen and Weiss the author gives a computable homotopical model for the classifying space of a stable non-orientable mapping class group up to homology isomorphism built from the canonical bundle over the Grassmannians of 2-planes in \( \mathbb{R} ^{n+2}\). In particular, a non-oriented analogue of the Mumford conjecture is obtained: the stable rational cohomology is a polynomial algebra on generators in degees \(4i\).