Geometric intersection in representations of mapping class groups of surfaces (Q501589)

The study of the representation theory of mapping class groups often answers a question of the form: how much geometric and topological information about surface diffeomorphisms can be recovered from linear algebraic actions of the mapping class group? This paper provides a simple observation in this vein. It addresses the issue of whether or not an image of the mapping class group can recover information about the geometric intersection numbers of simple closed curves on the surface. Let \(\Sigma_{g,n}\) be a surface of genus \(g\) with \(n\) punctures and let \(\mathcal{M}_{g,n}\) be its mapping class group. Given a simple closed curve \(c\) in \(\Sigma_{g,n}\), let \(t_c\) be the Dehn twist about \(c\). Given two curves \(c\) and \(d\), it's a well known fact that \(c\) and \(d\) have geometric intersection number if and only \(t_c\) and \(t_d\) commute. This provides an algebraic model in the mapping class group for intersection number \(0\). The author explores when this model is preserved in representations of \(\mathcal{M}_{g,n}\). The main result of the paper is that any homomorphism that preserves this algebraic model has a very small kernel. Specifically, if \(\rho: \mathcal{M}_{g,n} \to G\) has the property that \(t_c, t_d\) commute whenever \(\rho(t_c), \rho(t_d)\) commute (where \(c,d\) are non-separating simple closed curves) then the kernel of \(\rho\) is contained in the (finite) center of \(\mathcal{M}_{g,n}\). A similar result is shown for the case of separating curves.