Isoperimetric inequalities for the handlebody groups

We show that the mapping class group of a handlebody of genus at least 2 has a Dehn function of at most exponential growth type.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figur

LpL^p-cohomology for groups of isometries of Hadamard spaces

We show that a discrete group $\Gamma$ which admits a non-elementary isometric action on a Hadamard manifold of bounded negative curvature admits an isometric action on an $L^p$-space $V$ for some $p>1$ with $H^1(\Gamma,V)\not=0$.Comment: 26 page

Spotted disk and sphere graphs

The disk graph of a handlebody H of gneus $g\geq 2$ with $m\geq 0$ marked points on the boundary is the graph whose vertices are isotopy classes of disks disjoint from the marked points and where two vertices are connected by an edge of length one if they can be realized disjointly. We show that for m=2 the disk graph contains quasi-isometrically embedded copies of $\mathbb{R}^2$. Furthermore, the sphere graph of the doubled handlebody of genus $g\geq 4$ with two marked points contains for every $n\geq 1$ a quasi-isometrically embedded copy of $\mathbb{R}^n$.Comment: 26 pages, 1 figur

Generating the spin mapping class group by Dehn twists

Let f be a Z/2Z-spin structureon a closed surface S of genus g>3. We determine a generating set of the stabilizer of f in the mapping class group of S consisting of Dehn twists about an explicit collection of 2g+1 curves in S. If g=3 then we also determine a generating set of the stabilizer of an odd Z/2Z-spin structure consisting of Dehn twists about a collection of 6 curves.Comment: Final version. A considerable simplification in Section 2. 41 pages, 5 figure