skip to main content
Caltech

Geometry and Topology Seminar

Friday, January 19, 2018
3:00pm to 4:00pm
Add to Cal
Building 15, Room 104
Homomorphisms of pure mapping class groups to the integers
Nicholas Vlamis, Mathematics Department, University of Michigan,
A classical theorem of Powell (with roots in the work of Mumford and Birman) states that the pure mapping class group of a connected, orientable, finite-type surface of genus at least 3 is perfect, that is, it has trivial abelianization. We will discuss how this fails for infinite-genus surfaces and give a complete characterization of all homomorphisms from pure mapping class groups of infinite-genus surfaces to the integers. This is joint work with Javier Aramayona and Priyam Patel.
For more information, please contact Mathematics Department by phone at 626-395-4335 or by email at [email protected].