Mapping class groups of simply connected high-dimensional manifolds need not be arithmetic

DOI10.5802/CRMATH.61MaRDI QIDQ784227zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Manuel Krannich, Oscar Randal-Williams

Publication date 3 August 2020

Published in Comptes Rendus. Mathématique. Académie des Sciences, Paris (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.11158

zbMATH Keywords

mapping class groups

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Structure of modular groups and generalizations; arithmetic groups (11F06) Residual properties and generalizations; residually finite groups (20E26) Differential topological aspects of diffeomorphisms (57R50)

Abstract: It is well known that Sullivan showed that the mapping class group of a simply connected high-dimensional manifold is commensurable with an arithmetic group, but the meaning of "commensurable" in this statement seems to be less well known. We explain why this result fails with the now standard definition of commensurability by exhibiting a manifold whose mapping class group is not residually finite. We do not suggest any problem with Sullivan's result: rather we provide a gloss for it.

Review text

The authors show that a connected sum of a product of spheres can have a mapping class group that is not residually finite. In particular, it is not commensurable to an arithmetic group. Superficially, this seems to contradict Sullivan's result that the mapping class group of a simply-connected high-dimensional manifold is commensurable with an arithmetic group. The puzzle is resolved by the observation that the term `commensurable' has changed its meaning over time: passage to finite index subgroups has always been essential, but Sullivan allowed extensions with a finite kernel as well.

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Cited in

(8)

• Mapping class groups of highly connected \((4k+2)\)-manifolds
• Abelian quotients of mapping class groups of highly connected manifolds
• Diffeomorphisms of discs
• Finiteness properties of automorphism spaces of manifolds with finite fundamental group
• Asymptotic mapping class groups of Cantor manifolds and their finiteness properties (with an appendix by Oscar Randal-Williams)
• The homology of moduli spaces of 4-manifolds may be infinitely generated
• Monodromy and mapping class groups of 3-dimensional hypersurfaces
• Framed configuration spaces and exotic spheres

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