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Louis Funar

Publications and source records attributed to Louis Funar.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2016

On the automorphisms group of the asymptotic pants complex of an infinite surface of genus zero

The braided Thompson group $\mathcal B$ is an asymptotic mapping class group of a sphere punctured along the standard Cantor set, endowed with a rigid structure. Inspired from the case of finite type surfaces we consider a Hatcher-Thurston cell complex whose vertices are asymptotically trivial pants decompositions. We prove that the automorphism group $\hat{\mathcal B^{\frac{1}{2}}}$ of this complex is also an asymptotic mapping class group in a weaker sense. Moreover $\hat{\mathcal B^{\frac{1}{2}}}$ is obtained by $\mathcal B$ by first adding new elements called half-twists and further completing it.

math.GT↗
arXiv2015

Images of quantum representations of mapping class groups and Dupont-Guichardet-Wigner quasi-homomorphisms

We prove that either the images of the mapping class groups by quantum representations are not isomorphic to higher rank lattices or else the kernels have a large number of normal generators. Further we show that the images of the mapping class groups have nontrivial 2-cohomology, at least for small levels. For this purpose we considered a series of quasi-homomorphisms on mapping class groups extending previous work of Barge and Ghys and of Gambaudo and Ghys. These quasi-homomorphisms are pull-backs of the Dupont-Guichardet-Wigner quasi-homomorphisms on pseudo-unitary groups along quantum representations.

math.GT↗
arXiv2014

On power subgroups of mapping class groups

In the first part of this paper we prove that the mapping class subgroups generated by the $D$-th powers of Dehn twists (with $D\geq 2$) along a sparse collection of simple closed curves on an orientable surface are right angled Artin groups. The second part is devoted to power quotients, i.e. quotients by the normal subgroup generated by the $D$-th powers of all elements of the mapping class groups. We show first that for infinitely many $D$ the power quotient groups are non-trivial. On the other hand, if $4g+2$ does not divide $D$ then the associated power quotient of the mapping class group of the genus $g\geq 3$ closed surface is trivial. Eventually, an elementary argument shows that in genus 2 there are infinitely many power quotients which are infinite torsion groups.

math.GT↗
arXiv2014

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.

math.GT↗
arXiv2012

Torus bundles not distinguished by TQFT invariants

We show that there exist infinitely many pairs of non-homeomorphic closed oriented SOL torus bundles with the same quantum (TQFT) invariants. This follows from the arithmetic behind the conjugacy problem in $SL(2,\Z)$ and its congruence quotients, the classification of SOL (polycyclic) 3-manifold groups and an elementary study of a family of Pell equations. A key ingredient is the congruence subgroup property of modular representations, as it was established by Coste and Gannon, Bantay, Xu for various versions of TQFT, and lastly by Ng and Schauenburg for the Drinfeld doubles of spherical fusion categories. On the other side we prove that two torus bundles over the circle with the same quantum invariants are (strongly) commensurable. The examples above show that this is the best that it could be expected.

math.GT↗
arXiv2012

The first Johnson subgroups act ergodically on SU_2-character varieties

We show that the first Johnson subgroup of the mapping class group of a surface S of genus greater than one acts ergodically on the moduli space of representations of the fundamental group of S in SU_2. Our proof relies on a local description of the latter space around the trivial representation and on the Taylor expansion of trace functions.

math.GT↗
arXiv2012

Groups which are not properly 3-realizable

A group is properly 3-realizable if it is the fundamental group of a compact polyhedron whose universal covering is proper homotopically equivalent to some 3-manifold. We prove that when such a group is also quasi-simply filtered then it has {\em pro-(finitely generated free) fundamental group at infinity} and {\em semi-stable ends}. Conjecturally the quasi-simply filtration assumption is superfluous. Using these restrictions we provide the first examples of finitely presented groups which are not properly 3-realizable, for instance large families of Coxeter groups.

math.GT↗
arXiv2012

Global classification of isolated singularities in dimensions $(4,3)$ and $(8,5)$

We characterize those closed $2k$-manifolds admitting smooth maps into $(k+1)$-manifolds with only finitely many critical points, for $k\in\{2,4\}$. We compute then the minimal number of critical points of such smooth maps for $k=2$ and, under some fundamental group restrictions, also for $k=4$. The main ingredients are King's local classification of isolated singularities, decomposition theory, low dimensional cobordisms of spherical fibrations and 3-manifolds topology.

math.GT↗
arXiv2012

Zariski density and finite quotients of mapping class groups

Our main result is that the image of the quantum representation of a central extension of the mapping class group of the genus $g\geq 3$ closed orientable surface at a prime $p\geq 5$ is a Zariski dense discrete subgroup of some higher rank algebraic semi-simple Lie group $\mathbb G_p$ defined over $\Q$. As an application we find that, for any prime $p\geq 5$ a central extension of the genus $g$ mapping class group surjects onto the finite groups $\mathbb G_p(\Z/q\Z)$, for all but finitely many primes $q$. This method provides infinitely many finite quotients of a given mapping class group outside the realm of symplectic groups.

math.GR↗
arXiv2011

On Burau representations at roots of unity

We consider subgroups of the braid groups which are generated by $k$-th powers of the standard generators and prove that any infinite intersection (with even $k$) is trivial. This is motivated by some conjectures of Squier concerning the kernels of Burau's representations of the braid groups at roots of unity. Furthermore, we show that the image of the braid group on 3 strands by these representations is either a finite group, for a few roots of unity, or a finite extension of a triangle group, by using geometric methods.

math.GT↗
arXiv2011

Asymptotically rigid mapping class groups and Thompson's groups

We consider Thompson's groups from the perspective of mapping class groups of surfaces of infinite type. This point of view leads us to the braided Thompson groups, which are extensions of Thompson's groups by infinite (spherical) braid groups. We will outline the main features of these groups and some applications to the quantization of Teichmüller spaces. The chapter provides an introduction to the subject with an emphasis on some of the authors results.

math.GR↗
arXiv2010

Two questions on mapping class groups

We show that central extensions of the mapping class group $M_g$ of the closed orientable surface of genus $g$ by $\Z$ are residually finite. Further we give rough estimates of the largest $N=N_g$ such that homomorphisms from $M_g$ to SU(N) have finite image. In particular, homomorphisms of $M_g$ into $SL([\sqrt{g+1}],\C)$ have finite image. Both results come from properties of quantum representations of mapping class groups.

math.GT↗
arXiv2009

On the wgsc and qsf tameness conditions for finitely presented groups

A finitely presented group is weakly geometrically simply connected (wgsc) if it is the fundamental group of some compact polyhedron whose universal covering is wgsc i.e. it has an exhaustion by compact connected and simply connected sub-polyhedra. We show that this condition is almost-equivalent to Brick's qsf property, which amounts to finding an exhaustion approximable by finite simply connected complexes, and also to the tame combability introduced and studied by Mihalik and Tschantz. We further observe that a number of standard constructions in group theory yield qsf groups and analyze specific examples. We show that requiring the exhaustion be made of metric balls in some Cayley complex is a strong constraint, not verified by general qsf groups. In the second part of this paper we give sufficient conditions under which groups which are extensions of finitely presented groups by finitely generated (but infinitely presented) groups are qsf. We prove, in particular, that the finitely presented HNN extension of the Grigorchuk group is qsf.

math.GT↗
arXiv2009

Central extensions of the Ptolemy-Thompson group and quantized Teichmuller theory

The central extension of the Thompson group $T$ that arises in the quantized Teichmüller theory is 12 times the Euler class. This extension is obtained by taking a (partial) abelianization of the so-called braided Ptolemy-Thompson group introduced and studied in \cite{FK2}. We describe then the cyclic central extensions of $T$ by means of explicit presentations.

math.GT↗
arXiv2008

An infinite genus mapping class group and stable cohomology

We exhibit a finitely generated group $\M$ whose rational homology is isomorphic to the rational stable homology of the mapping class group. It is defined as a mapping class group associated to a surface $\su$ of infinite genus, and contains all the pure mapping class groups of compact surfaces of genus $g$ with $n$ boundary components, for any $g\geq 0$ and $n>0$. We construct a representation of $\M$ into the restricted symplectic group ${\rm Sp_{res}}({\cal H}_r)$ of the real Hilbert space generated by the homology classes of non-separating circles on $\su$, which generalizes the classical symplectic representation of the mapping class groups. Moreover, we show that the first universal Chern class in $H^2(\M,\Z)$ is the pull-back of the Pressley-Segal class on the restricted linear group ${\rm GL_{res}}({\cal H})$ via the inclusion ${\rm Sp_{res}}({\cal H}_r)\subset {\rm GL_{res}}({\cal H})$.

math.GT↗
arXiv2008

Asymptotics of generalized Hadwiger numbers

We give asymptotic estimates for the number of non-overlapping homothetic copies of some centrally symmetric oval $B$ which have a common point with a 2-dimensional domain $F$ having rectifiable boundary, extending previous work of the L.Fejes-Toth, K.Borockzy Jr., D.G.Larman, S.Sezgin, C.Zong and the authors. The asymptotics compute the length of the boundary $\partial F$ in the Minkowski metric determined by $B$. The core of the proof consists of a method for sliding convex beads along curves with positive reach in the Minkowski plane. We also prove that level sets are rectifiable subsets, extending a theorem of Erdös, Oleksiv and Pesin for the Euclidean space to the Minkowski space.

math.MG↗