Orbits of curves under the Johnson kernel

DOI10.1353/AJM.2014.0025MaRDI QIDQ2879438zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Thomas Church

Publication date 1 September 2014

Published in American Journal of Mathematics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1108.4511, http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_journal_of_mathematics/summary/v136/136.4.church.html

zbMATH Keywords

Johnson filtrationmapping class groupsurfaceTorelli group

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Isotopy and pseudo-isotopy (57N37)

Abstract: This paper has two main goals. First, we give a complete, explicit, and computable solution to the problem of when two simple closed curves on a surface are equivalent under the Johnson kernel. Second, we show that the Johnson filtration and the Johnson homomorphism can be defined intrinsically on subsurfaces and prove that both are functorial under inclusions of subsurfaces. The key point is that the latter reduces the former to a finite computation, which can be carried out by hand. In particular this solves the conjugacy problem in the Johnson kernel for separating twists. Using a theorem of Putman, we compute the first Betti number of the Torelli group of a subsurface.

Review text

Let \(S\) be a surface with one boundary component. The \textit{mapping class group} Mod(\(S\)) is the group of self-homeomorphisms of \(S\) fixing \(\partial S\) up to isotopy. This group is filtered by the \textit{Johnson filtration} Mod\(_{(k)}(S)\) consisting of those mapping classes that act trivially on the universal \((k-1)\)-step nilpotent quotient of \(\pi_1(S)\). The \textit{Torelli group} \(I(S)\) is the group Mod\(_{(2)}(S)\) and the \textit{Johnson kernel} is the group Mod\(_{(3)}(S)\).NEWLINENEWLINEThe author gives a complete explicit and computable solution to the problem of when two simple closed curves on \(S\) are equivalent under the Johnson kernel. It is also shown that the Johnson filtration and the Johnson homomorphism can be defined intrinsically on subsurfaces and proved that both are functorial under inclusions of subsurfaces.

Recommendations

• The Johnson homomorphism and its kernel
• Commensurations of the Johnson kernel
• The co-Hopfian property of the Johnson kernel and the Torelli group.
• The second Johnson homomorphism and the second rational cohomology of the Johnson kernel
• Torelli group, Johnson kernel, and invariants of homology spheres

Cited in

(11)

• Abelian quotients of subgroups of the mapping class group of surfaces
• Generalized Chillingworth classes on subsurface Torelli groups
• Lagrangian traces for the Johnson filtration of the handlebody group
• The dimension of the Torelli group
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 5526528 (Why is no real title available?)
• On the top homology group of the Johnson kernel
• Two mod-p Johnson filtrations
• Intersection of curves on surfaces and their applications to mapping class groups
• Effective finite generation for \([\mathrm{IA}_n,\mathrm{IA}_n]\) and the Johnson kernel
• On the structure of the top homology group of the Johnson kernel
• The Johnson homomorphism and its kernel

This page was built for publication: Orbits of curves under the Johnson kernel

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q2879438)