Simple closed curves, finite covers of surfaces, and power subgroups of Out(F_n)

DOI10.1215/00127094-2019-0022MaRDI QIDQ2336101zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Justin Malestein, Andrew Putman

Publication date 18 November 2019

Published in Duke Mathematical Journal (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1708.06486, https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.dmj/1568081121

zbMATH Keywords

\(p\)-groupscentral seriescovering spaceslinear representationsmapping class groupouter automorphism group of the free groupprimitivesrepresentations of finite groupsrestricted Lie algebrassimple closed curvessurfacestransvections

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Group rings of finite groups and their modules (group-theoretic aspects) (20C05) Fundamental groups and their automorphisms (group-theoretic aspects) (20F34) Covering spaces and low-dimensional topology (57M10)

Abstract: We construct examples of finite covers of punctured surfaces where the first rational homology is not spanned by lifts of simple closed curves. More generally, for any set $mathcalOsubset{F}_n$ which is contained in the union of finitely many $Aut(F_n)$-orbits, we construct finite-index normal subgroups of $F_n$ whose first rational homology is not spanned by powers of elements of $mathcalO$. These examples answer questions of Farb-Hensel, Kent, Looijenga, and Marche. We also show that the quotient of $Out(F_n)$ by the subgroup generated by kth powers of transvections often contains infinite order elements, strengthening a result of Bridson-Vogtmann saying that it is often infinite. Finally, for any set $mathcalOsubset{F}_n$ which is contained in the union of finitely many $Aut(F_n)$-orbits, we construct integral linear representations of free groups that have infinite image and map all elements of $mathcalO$ to torsion elements.

Review text

In this paper, the authors prove that for any punctured surface \(\Sigma\), there is a finite regular cover \(\tilde{\Sigma}\to \Sigma\), such that \(H_1(\tilde{\Sigma};\mathbb{Q})\) is not spanned by lifts of simple closed curves in \(\Sigma\) (Theorem A). This result promotes a result of \textit{T. Koberda} and \textit{R. Santharoubane} [Invent. Math. 206, No. 2, 269--292 (2016; Zbl 1400.57020)] from \(\mathbb{Z}\)-coefficients to \(\mathbb{Q}\)-coefficients. On the other hand, Koberda-Santharoubane's result works for closed surfaces but the result in this paper only works for punctured surfaces. To prove Theorem A, the authors prove a more general theorem in free groups (Theorem C). Some notations: let \(\mathcal{O}\subset F_n\) be a subset of the free group on \(n\)-generators, let \(R\lhd F_n\) be a finite index subgroup and let \(A\) be an abelian group, then define \(H_1^{\mathcal{O}}(R;A)\) to be the span of the following set in \(H_1(R;A)\): \[ \{[x^k]\in H_1(R;A)\ |\ x\in \mathcal{O},\ k\geq 1\text{\ such\ that\ }x^k\in R\}. \] Then Theorem C is stated as: let \(\mathcal{O}\subset F_n\) be a subset contained in the union of finitely many \(\text{Aut}(F_n)\)-orbits, then there is a finite-index normal subgroup \(R\lhd F_n\) such that \(H_1^{\mathcal{O}}(R;\mathbb{Q})\ne H_1(R;\mathbb{Q})\). The technical heart of this paper is the following Theorem D. For a prime number \(p\), let \(\mathfrak{D}_p\subset F_n\) be the subset consisting of elements whose image in \(H_1(F_n;\mathbb{F}_p)\) is nontrivial, then there is a finite-index normal subgroup \(R\lhd F_n\), such that \(H_1^{\mathfrak{D}_p}(R;\mathbb{Q})\ne H_1(R;\mathbb{Q})\). To prove Theorem D, the authors first prove a criterion for certifying that \(H_1^{\mathfrak{D}_p}(R;\mathbb{Q})\ne H_1(R;\mathbb{Q})\), in terms of the existence of certain representations of the finite group \(G=F_n/R\) (Theorem 2.1). The existence of the desired representation relies on the existence of certain finite \(p\)-groups (Proposition 2.3), while the desired finite \(p\)-group is constructed by the theory of \(p\)-restricted Lie algebras. Besides Theorem C, Theorem D also implies the existence of certain infinite quotients of \(\text{Out}(F_n)\) and \(F_n\) that map certain given elements (powers of transvections and elements in \(\mathfrak{D}_p\), respectively) to finite-order elements, which are Theorems E, F and G in the paper.

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Cited in

(14)

• Conservative subgroup separability for surfaces with boundary
• Lifts of simple curves in finite regular coverings of closed surfaces
• Quotients of surface groups and homology of finite covers via quantum representations
• The extrinsic primitive torsion problem
• Arithmetic quotients of the automorphism group of a right-angled Artin group
• Subrepresentations in the homology of finite covers of graphs
• Graph Coverings and (Im)primitive Homology: Examples of Low Degree
• The second variation of the Hodge norm and higher Prym representations
• Applications of quantum representations of mapping class groups
• Simple closed curves in stable covers of surfaces
• Generating the homology of covers of surfaces
• Simple closed curves, non-kernel homology and Magnus embedding
• Unmarked simple length spectral rigidity for covers
• Curves with prescribed symmetry and associated representations of mapping class groups

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• MathOverflow

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