We show that the action of the mapping class group on bordered Floer homology in the second to extremal spin${}^c$-structure is faithful. This paper is designed partly as an introduction to the subject, and much of it should be readable without a background in Floer homology.

In this short note we give an elementary combinatorial argument, showing that the conjecture of J. Fernández de Bobadilla, I. Luengo-Velasco, A. Melle-Hernández and A. Némethi [Proc. London Math. Soc. 92 (2006), 99-138, Conjecture 1] follows from Theorem 5.4 of Brodzik and Livingston [arXiv:1304.1062] in the case of rational cuspidal curves with two critical points.

Let $\Sigma$ be a surface with a symplectic form, let $\phi$ be a symplectomorphism of $\Sigma$, and let $Y$ be the mapping torus of $\phi$. We show that the dimensions of moduli spaces of embedded pseudoholomorphic curves in $ℝ\times 𝕐$, with cylindrical ends asymptotic to periodic orbits of $\phi$ or multiple covers thereof, are bounded from above by an additive relative index. We deduce some compactness results for these moduli spaces. This paper establishes some of the foundations for a program with Michael Thaddeus, to understand...