Stable twisted cohomology of the mapping class groups in the unit tangent bundle homology

Abstract

We compute the stable cohomology groups of the mapping class groups of compact orientable surfaces with one boundary, with twisted coefficients given by the homology of the unit tangent bundle of the surface. This stable twisted cohomology is not free as a module over the stable cohomology algebra with constant coefficients. In fact, it is out of the scope of the traditional framework for twisted cohomological stability, since these twisted coefficients define a covariant functor over the classical category associated to mapping class groups to study homological stability, rather than a contravariant one. For comparison, we also compute the stable cohomology group with coefficients in the first cohomology of the unit tangent bundle of the surface, which fits into the traditional framework.