Mapping class groups of surfaces of genus \geq 3 do not virtually surject to \mathbb{Z}

Abstract: We prove a well known conjecture of Nikolai Ivanov which states that if

X

is a surface of genus

g e q 3

(with any number of punctures and boundary components),

m M o d (X)

is the mapping class group of

X

, and

K < m M o d (X)

is a finite-index subgroup, then

K

does not virtually surject to

m a t h b b Z

. As a corollary of this we get that

H_{1} (Z; m a t h b b Q) = 0

whenever

Z

is a finite cover of

m a t h c a l M_{g, n}

, the moduli space of complex algebraic curves of genus

g g e q 3

with

n

marked points.

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