Hyperbolic metrics, measured foliations and pants decompositions for non-orientable surfaces (Q254828): Difference between revisions

The \textit{Fenchel-Nielsen theorem} gives a parametrization to the Teichmüller space and the \textit{Dehn-Thurston theorem} gives one to the space of measured foliations on a surface. Both theorems are fundamental in the studies of topology and geometry of surfaces. These theorems, however, treat only orientable surfaces and, surprisingly, their analogues for non-orientable surfaces seem to be unknown heretofore. The aim of this paper is to establish these two theorems and also the Hatcher-Thurston theorem for non-orientable surfaces possibly with boundary curves. Let \(S\) denote a non-orientable surface \(N_{g,r}\) of genus \(g\) with \(r\) boundary curves and we assume that \(S\) admits hyperbolic metrics. A simple closed curve on \(S\) is called \textit{\(1\)-sided} if its regular neighborhood is a Möbius band. (Although a \textit{\(2\)-sided} simple closed curve usually means that its regular neighborhood is an annulus, a boundary curve is considered to be \(2\)-sided.) Of course, the existence of \(1\)-sided curves is a characteristic for non-orientable surfaces. If a \textit{pants decomposition} \(\mathcal{P}\) of \(S\) is given, then the \textit{Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates} are the lengths of geodesic curves homotopic to curves in \(\mathcal{P}\) and the twisting numbers of \(2\)-sided curves in \(\mathcal{P}\) on the hyperbolic surface representing a point of the Teichmüller space \(\mathcal{T}(S)\). The definition of twisting numbers and also that of the Teichmüller space are modified so that the twisting number is defined also for a boundary curve. The \textit{Dehn-Thurston coordinates} are the intersecting numbers of the curves and the twisting numbers of the \(2\)-sided curves in \(\mathcal{P}\) with respect to a measured foliation \(\mathcal{F}\). The definition of the intersection number for a \(1\)-sided curve differs depending on whether the curve intersects \(\mathcal{F}\) transversely or is isotopic to a closed leaf in \(\mathcal{F}\). The Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates and the Dehn-Thurston coordinates embed \(\mathcal{T}(S)\) and \(\mathcal{F}(S)\), the spaces of measured foliations, into \(\mathbb{R}^{M+2N}\), where \(M\) and \(N\) are the numbers of \(1\)-sided and \(2\)-sided curves in \(\mathcal{P}\), respectively. As in the case of orientable surfaces, the Teichmüller space \(\mathcal{T}(S)\) admits a compactification by adding the space of projective measured foliations. The action of the mapping class group extends continuously to the campactified space. Another important result of this paper is a generalization of the \textit{Hatcher-Thurston theorem}. Other than two moves which are common to orientable and non-orientable surfaces, the authors introduce two more moves (see Figure 1 of this paper) on pants decompositions on a non-orientable surface. They show that any two pants decompositions are related by a finite number of these four moves. The authors conclude the paper with remarks on modifications needed to develop their theory for punctured surfaces.