Student Geometry/Topology Seminar

In this talk we consider the action of the mapping class group of an orientable closed surface of genus g on the first homology of that surface. This action leads to a surjective representation onto the symplectic group Sp(2g,Z). After describing this representation, I will give some examples of what we can learn about mapping class groups by considering this representation. I will also make some remarks about the kernel of this representation, the Torelli group. This talk has minimal dependence on the talk from 10/31. Speaker(s): Patrick Haggerty (Indiana University)