Date of Award

2022

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Graduate Group

Mathematics

First Advisor

Wolfgang Ziller

Second Advisor

David Futer

Abstract

This thesis investigates mapping class groups of infinite-type surfaces, also called big mapping class groups, by studying their actions on certain graphs whose vertices are arcs and curves on the underlying surface. In particular, we show that the extended mapping class group of any surface with a finite, positive number of punctures is isomorphic to the relative arc graph of that surface; that the mapping class group of any translatable surface is quasi-isometric to that surface's translatable curve graph; and that the mapping class group of a sphere minus a Cantor set is quasi-isometric to that surface's loop graph.

Included in

Mathematics Commons

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