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Louis Funar

Publications and source records attributed to Louis Funar.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2025

Algebro-geometric subgroups of mapping class groups

We provide new constraints for algebro-geometric subgroups of mapping class groups, namely images of fundamental groups of curves under complex algebraic maps to the moduli space of smooth curves. Specifically, we prove that the restriction of an infinite, finite rank unitary representation of the mapping class group of a closed surface to an algebro-geometric subgroup should be infinite, when the genus is at least 3. In particular the restriction of most Reshetikhin-Turaev representations of the mapping class group to such subgroups is infinite. To this purpose we use deep work of Gibney, Keel and Morrison to constrain the Shafarevich morphism associated to a linear representation of the fundamental group of the compactifications of the moduli stack of smooth curves studied in our previous work. As an application we prove that universal covers of most of these compactifications are Stein manifolds.

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arXiv2024

Polyhedral CAT(0) metrics on locally finite complexes

We prove the arborescence of any locally finite complex that is $CAT(0)$ with a polyhedral metric for which all vertex stars are convex. In particular locally finite $CAT(0)$ cube complexes or equilateral simplicial complexes are arborescent. Moreover, a triangulated manifold admits a $CAT(0)$ polyhedral metric if and only if it admits arborescent triangulations. We prove eventually that every locally finite complex which is $CAT(0)$ with a polyhedral metric has a barycentric subdivision which is arborescent.

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arXiv2023

Automorphisms of the procongruence pants complex

We show that every automorphism of the congruence completion of the extended mapping class group that preserves the set of conjugacy classes of procyclic groups generated by Dehn twists is inner, and that its automorphism group is naturally isomorphic to the automorphism group of the procongruence pants complex. In the genus-zero case, we prove the stronger result that all automorphisms of the profinite completion of the extended mapping class group are inner.

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arXiv2022

Singular fibrations over surfaces

Singular fibrations generalize achiral Lefschetz fibrations of 4-manifolds over surfaces while sharing some of their properties. For instance, relatively minimal singular fibrations are determined by their monodromy. We explain how to construct examples of singular fibrations with a single singularity and Matsumoto's construction of singular fibrations of the sphere $S^4$. Previous results of Hirzebruch and Hopf on 2-plane fields with finitely many singularities are outlined in connection with the work of Neumann and Rudolph on the Hopf invariant. Eventually, we prove that closed orientable 4-manifolds with large first Betti number and vanishing second Betti number do not admit singular fibrations.

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arXiv2021

Orbifold K\"ahler Groups related to Mapping Class groups

We construct certain orbifold compactifications of the moduli stack of pointed stable curves over $\mathbb C$ and study their fundamental groups by means of their quantum representations. This enables to construct interesting K\"ahler groups and to settle most of the candidates for a counter-example to the Shafarevich conjecture on holomorphic convexity proposed in 1998 by Bogomolov and Katzarkov, using TQFT representations of the mapping class groups.

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arXiv2020

On mapping class group quotients by powers of Dehn twists and their representations

The aim of this paper is to survey some known results about mapping class group quotients by powers of Dehn twists, related to their finite dimensional representations and to state some open questions. One can construct finite quotients of them, out of representations with Zariski dense images into semisimple Lie groups. We show that, in genus 2, the Fibonacci TQFT representation is actually a specialization of the Jones representation. Eventually, we explain a method of Long and Moody which provides large families of mapping class group representations.

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arXiv2020

Braided surfaces and their characteristic maps

We show that branched coverings of surfaces of large enough genus arise as characteristic maps of braided surfaces that is, lift to embeddings in the product of the surface with $\mathbb R^2$. This result is nontrivial already for unramified coverings, in which case the lifting problem is well-known to reduce to the purely algebraic problem of factoring the monodromy map to the symmetric group $S_n$ through the braid group $B_n$. In our approach, this factorization is often achieved as a consequence of a stronger property: a factorization through a free group. In the reverse direction we show that any non-abelian surface group has infinitely many finite simple non-abelian groups quotients with characteristic kernels which do not contain any simple loop and hence the quotient maps do not factor through free groups. By a pullback construction, finite dimensional Hermitian representations of braid groups provide invariants for the braided surfaces. We show that the strong equivalence classes of braided surfaces are separated by such invariants if and only if they are profinitely separated.

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arXiv2020

Finite quotients of symplectic groups vs mapping class groups

We give alternative computations of the Schur multiplier of $Sp(2g,\mathbb Z/D\mathbb Z)$, when $D$ is divisible by 4 and $g\geq 4$: a first one using $K$-theory arguments based on the work of Barge and Lannes and a second one based on the Weil representations of symplectic groups arising in abelian Chern-Simons theory. We can also retrieve this way Deligne's non-residual finiteness of the universal central extension $\widetilde{Sp(2g,\mathbb Z)}$. We prove then that the image of the second homology into finite quotients of symplectic groups over a Dedekind domain of arithmetic type are torsion groups of uniformly bounded size. In contrast, quantum representations produce for every prime $p$, finite quotients of the mapping class group of genus $g\geq 3$ whose second homology image has $p$-torsion. We further derive that all central extensions of the mapping class group are residually finite and deduce that mapping class groups have Serre's property $A_2$ for trivial modules, contrary to symplectic groups. Eventually we compute the module of coinvariants $H_2(\mathfrak{sp}_{2g}(2))_{Sp(2g,\mathbb Z/2^k\mathbb Z)}=\mathbb Z/2\mathbb Z$.

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arXiv2020

Automorphisms of procongruence curve and pants complexes

In this paper we study the automorphism group of the procongruence mapping class group through its action on the associated procongruence curve and pants complexes. Our main result is a rigidity theorem for the procongruence completion of the pants complex. As an application we prove that moduli stacks of smooth algebraic curves satisfy a weak anabelian property in the procongruence setting.

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arXiv2019

Maps with finitely many critical points into high dimensional manifolds

Assume that there exists a smooth map between two closed manifolds $M^m\to N^k$ with only finitely many cone-like singular points, where $2\leq k\leq m\leq 2k-1$. If $(m,k)\not\in\{(2,2), (4,3), (5,3), (8,5), (16,9)\}$, then $M^m$ admits a locally trivial topological fibration over $N^k$ and there exists a smooth map $M^m\to N^k$ with at most one critical point.

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arXiv2018

Quotients of the mapping class group by power subgroups

We study the quotient of the mapping class group $\operatorname{Mod}_g^n$ of a surface of genus $g$ with $n$ punctures, by the subgroup $\operatorname{Mod}_g^n[p]$ generated by the $p$-th powers of Dehn twists. Our first main result is that $\operatorname{Mod}_g^1 /\operatorname{Mod}_g^1[p]$ contains an infinite normal subgroup of infinite index, and in particular is not commensurable to a higher-rank lattice, for all but finitely many explicit values of $p$. Next, we prove that $\operatorname{Mod}_g^0/ \operatorname{Mod}_g^0[p]$ contains a K\"ahler subgroup of finite index, for every $p\ge 2$ coprime with six. Finally, we observe that the existence of finite-index subgroups of $\operatorname{Mod}_g^0$ with infinite abelianization is equivalent to the analogous problem for $\operatorname{Mod}_g^0/ \operatorname{Mod}_g^0[p]$.

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arXiv2017

Profinite completions of Burnside-type quotients of surface groups

Using quantum representations of mapping class groups we prove that profinite completions of Burnside-type surface group quotients are not virtually prosolvable, in general. Further, we construct infinitely many finite simple characteristic quotients of surface groups.

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arXiv2017

Asymptotic mapping class groups of closed surfaces punctured along Cantor sets

We introduce subgroups ${\mathcal{B}}_g< {\mathcal H}_g$ of the mapping class group $Mod(\Sigma_g)$ of a closed surface of genus $g \ge 0$ with a Cantor set removed, which are extensions of Thompson's group $V$ by a direct limit of mapping class groups of compact surfaces of genus $g$. We first show that both ${\mathcal{B}}_g$ and ${\mathcal H}_g$ are finitely presented, and that ${\mathcal H}_g$ is dense in $Mod(\Sigma_g)$. We then exploit the relation with Thompson's groups to study properties ${\mathcal B}_g$ and ${\mathcal H}_g$ in analogy with known facts about finite-type mapping class groups. For instance, their homology coincides with the stable homology of the mapping class group of genus $g$, every automorphism is geometric, and every homomorphism from a higher-rank lattice has finite image. In addition, the same connection with Thompson's groups will also prove that ${\mathcal B}_g$ and ${\mathcal H}_g$ are not linear and do not have Kazhdan's Property (T), which represents a departure from the current knowledge about finite-type mapping class groups.

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arXiv2015

CAT(0) metrics on contractible manifolds

We prove that an open manifold $M$ of dimension at least $5$ which admits a complete CAT(0) polyhedral metric is pseudo-collarable, its fundamental group at infinity is strongly perfectly semistable and has vanishing Chapman-Siebenmann obstruction $\tau_{\infty}(M)$. Moreover, this implies that $M$ is topologically collapsible, when $n\geq 6$. Conversely, any finite dimensional collapsible polyhedron is PL homeomorphic to a CAT(0) cubical complex.

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arXiv2014

Diffeomorphisms groups of tame Cantor sets and Thompson-like groups

The group of $\mathcal C^1$-diffeomorphisms of any sparse Cantor subset of a manifold is countable and discrete (possibly trivial). Thompson's groups come out of this construction when we consider central ternary Cantor subsets of an interval. Brin's higher dimensional generalizations $nV$ of Thompson's group $V$ arise when we consider products of central ternary Cantor sets. We derive that the $\mathcal C^2$-smooth mapping class group of a sparse Cantor sphere pair is a discrete countable group and produce this way versions of the braided Thompson groups.

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arXiv2014

The topology of closed manifolds with quasi-constant sectional curvature

We prove that closed manifolds admitting a generic metric whose sectional curvature is locally quasi-constant are graphs of space forms. In the more general setting of QC spaces where sets of isotropic points are arbitrary, under suitable positivity assumption and for torsion-free fundamental groups they are still diffeomorphic to connected sums of spherical space forms and spherical bundles over the circle.

math.DG↗
arXiv2013

On groups with linear sci growth

We prove that the semistability growth of hyperbolic groups is linear, which implies that hyperbolic groups which are sci (simply connected at infinity) have linear sci growth. Based on the linearity of the end-depth of finitely presented groups we show that the linear sci is preserved under amalgamated products over finitely generated one-ended groups. Eventually one proves that most non-uniform lattices have linear sci.

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