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Andrew Putman

Publications and source records attributed to Andrew Putman.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
arXiv2015

Stability in the homology of congruence subgroups

The homology groups of many natural sequences of groups $\{G_n\}_{n=1}^{\infty}$ (e.g. general linear groups, mapping class groups, etc.) stabilize as $n \rightarrow \infty$. Indeed, there is a well-known machine for proving such results that goes back to early work of Quillen. Church and Farb discovered that many sequences of groups whose homology groups do not stabilize in the classical sense actually stabilize in some sense as representations. They called this phenomena representation stability. We prove that the homology groups of congruence subgroups of $GL_n(R)$ (for almost any reasonable ring $R$) satisfy a strong version of representation stability that we call central stability. The definition of central stability is very different from Church-Farb's definition of representation stability (it is defined via a universal property), but we prove that it implies representation stability. Our main tool is a new machine for proving central stability that is analogous to the classical homological stability machine.

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arXiv2015

Pseudo-Anosov dilatations and the Johnson filtration

Answering a question of Farb-Leininger-Margalit, we give explicit lower bounds for the dilatations of pseudo-Anosov mapping classes lying in the kth term of the Johnson filtration of the mapping class group.

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arXiv2014

Generating the Johnson filtration

For k >= 1, let Torelli_g^1(k) be the k-th term in the Johnson filtration of the mapping class group of a genus g surface with one boundary component. We prove that for all k, there exists some G_k >= 0 such that Torelli_g^1(k) is generated by elements which are supported on subsurfaces whose genus is at most G_k. We also prove similar theorems for the Johnson filtration of Aut(F_n) and for certain mod-p analogues of the Johnson filtrations of both the mapping class group and of Aut(F_n). The main tools used in the proofs are the related theories of FI-modules (due to the first author together with Ellenberg and Farb) and central stability (due to the second author), both of which concern the representation theory of the symmetric groups over Z.

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arXiv2014

Generators for the hyperelliptic Torelli group and the kernel of the Burau representation at t=-1

We prove that the hyperelliptic Torelli group is generated by Dehn twists about separating curves that are preserved by the hyperelliptic involution. This verifies a conjecture of Hain. The hyperelliptic Torelli group can be identified with the kernel of the Burau representation evaluated at t=-1 and also the fundamental group of the branch locus of the period mapping, and so we obtain analogous generating sets for those. One application is that each component in Torelli space of the locus of hyperelliptic curves becomes simply connected when curves of compact type are added.

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arXiv2013

The complex of partial bases for F_n and finite generation of the Torelli subgroup of Aut(F_n)

We study the complex of partial bases of a free group, which is an analogue for $\Aut(F_n)$ of the curve complex for the mapping class group. We prove that it is connected and simply connected, and we also prove that its quotient by the Torelli subgroup of $\Aut(F_n)$ is highly connected. Using these results, we give a new, topological proof of a theorem of Magnus that asserts that the Torelli subgroup of $\Aut(F_n)$ is finitely generated.

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arXiv2013

Abelian quotients of subgroups of the mapping class group and higher Prym representations

A well-known conjecture asserts that the mapping class group of a surface (possibly with punctures/boundary) does not virtually surject onto $\Z$ if the genus of the surface is large. We prove that if this conjecture holds for some genus, then it also holds for all larger genera. We also prove that if there is a counterexample to this conjecture, then there must be a counterexample of a particularly simple form. We prove these results by relating the conjecture to a family of linear representations of the mapping class group that we call the higher Prym representations. They generalize the classical symplectic representation.

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arXiv2013

On the self-intersections of curves deep in the lower central series of a surface group

We give various estimates of the minimal number of self-intersections of a nontrivial element of the kth term of the lower central series and derived series of the fundamental group of a surface. As an application, we obtain a new topological proof of the fact that free groups and fundamental groups of closed surfaces are residually nilpotent. Along the way, we prove that a nontrivial element of the kth term of the lower central series of a nonabelian free group has to have word length at least $k$ in a free generating set.

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arXiv2012

A Birman exact sequence for Aut(F_n)

The Birman exact sequence describes the effect on the mapping class group of a surface with boundary of gluing discs to the boundary components. We construct an analogous exact sequence for the automorphism group of a free group. For the mapping class group, the kernel of the Birman exact sequence is a surface braid group. We prove that in the context of the automorphism group of a free group, the natural kernel is finitely generated. However, it is not finitely presentable; indeed, we prove that its second rational homology group has infinite rank by constructing an explicit infinite collection of linearly independent abelian cycles. We also determine the abelianization of our kernel and build a simple infinite presentation for it. The key to many of our proofs are several new generalizations of the Johnson homomorphisms.

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arXiv2012

The Torelli group and congruence subgroups of the mapping class group

These are the lecture notes for my course at the 2011 Park City Mathematics Graduate Summer School. The first two lectures covered the basics of the Torelli group and the Johnson homomorphism, and the third and fourth lectures discussed the second cohomology group of the level p congruence subgroup of the mapping class group, following my papers "The second rational homology group of the moduli space of curves with level structures" and "The Picard group of the moduli space of curves with level structures".

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arXiv2011

Small generating sets for the Torelli group

Proving a conjecture of Dennis Johnson, we show that the Torelli subgroup of the mapping class group has a finite generating set whose size grows cubically with respect to the genus of the surface. Our main tool is a new space called the handle graph on which the Torelli group acts cocompactly.

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arXiv2011

The second rational homology group of the moduli space of curves with level structures

Let $Γ$ be a finite-index subgroup of the mapping class group of a closed genus $g$ surface that contains the Torelli group. For instance, $Γ$ can be the level $L$ subgroup or the spin mapping class group. We show that $H_2(Γ;\Q) \cong \Q$ for $g \geq 5$. A corollary of this is that the rational Picard groups of the associated finite covers of the moduli space of curves are equal to $\Q$. We also prove analogous results for surface with punctures and boundary components.

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arXiv2011

The Picard group of the moduli space of curves with level structures

For $4 \nmid L$ and $g$ large, we calculate the integral Picard groups of the moduli spaces of curves and principally polarized abelian varieties with level $L$ structures. In particular, we determine the divisibility properties of the standard line bundles over these moduli spaces and we calculate the second integral cohomology group of the level $L$ subgroup of the mapping class group (in a previous paper, the author determined this rationally). This entails calculating the abelianization of the level $L$ subgroup of the mapping class group, generalizing previous results of Perron, Sato, and the author. Finally, along the way we calculate the first homology group of the mod $L$ symplectic group with coefficients in the adjoint representation.

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arXiv2011

Abelian covers of surfaces and the homology of the level L mapping class group

We calculate the first homology group of the mapping class group with coefficients in the first rational homology group of the universal abelian $\Z / L \Z$-cover of the surface. If the surface has one marked point, then the answer is $\Q^{τ(L)}$, where $τ(L)$ is the number of positive divisors of $L$. If the surface instead has one boundary component, then the answer is $\Q$. We also perform the same calculation for the level $L$ subgroup of the mapping class group. Set $H_L = H_1(Σ_g;\Z/L\Z)$. If the surface has one marked point, then the answer is $\Q[H_L]$, the rational group ring of $H_L$. If the surface instead has one boundary component, then the answer is $\Q$.

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arXiv2011

Obtaining presentations from group actions without making choices

Consider a group $G$ acting nicely on a simply-connected simplicial complex $X$. Numerous classical methods exist for using this group action to produce a presentation for $G$. For the case that $X/G$ is 2-connected, we give a new method that has the novelty that one does not have to identify a fundamental domain for the action. Indeed, the resulting presentation is canonical in the sense that no arbitrary choices need to be made. It can be viewed as a nonabelian analogue of a simple result in the study of equivariant homology.

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arXiv2009

A note on the abelianizations of finite-index subgroups of the mapping class group

For some $g \geq 3$, let $Γ$ be a finite index subgroup of the mapping class group of a genus $g$ surface (possibly with boundary components and punctures). An old conjecture of Ivanov says that the abelianization of $Γ$ should be finite. In this note, we prove two theorems supporting this conjecture. For the first, let $T_x$ denote the Dehn twist about a simple closed curve $x$. For some $n \geq 1$, we have $T_x^n \in Γ$. We prove that $T_x^n$ is torsion in the abelianization of $Γ$. Our second result shows that the abelianization of $Γ$ is finite if $Γ$ contains a "large chunk" (in a certain technical sense) of the Johnson kernel, that is, the subgroup of the mapping class group generated by twists about separating curves. This generalizes work of Hain and Boggi.

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arXiv2008

An infinite presentation of the Torelli group

In this paper, we construct an infinite presentation of the Torelli subgroup of the mapping class group of a surface whose generators consist of the set of all "separating twists", all "bounding pair maps", and all "commutators of simply intersecting pairs" and whose relations all come from a short list of topological configurations of these generators on the surface. Aside from a few obvious ones, all of these relations come from a set of embeddings of groups derived from surface groups into the Torelli group. In the process of analyzing these embeddings, we derive a novel presentation for the fundamental group of a closed surface whose generating set is the set of all simple closed curves.

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