Generating pairs and group actions (Q392504)

The paper considers orientation-preserving actions of finite groups \(G\) on closed orientable surfaces \(\Sigma_g\), of genus \(g\), and in particular large, almost free actions: the author calls such an action \textit{almost free} if it has exactly one orbit of points with non-trivial stabilizers, and \textit{large} if \(|G| \geq g\). Lifting to the universal covering, such a large, almost free action is uniformized by a Fuchsian group \(\Gamma_n\) with presentation \(\langle A,B \mid [A,B]^n = 1\rangle\) (i.e., of signature \((1;n)\)), with \(n>1\) (equivalently, the quotient surface \(\Sigma/G\) has genus one and a single branch point of degree \(n\)), and the \(G\)-action is determined by the canonical surjection \(p:\Gamma_n \to G\); in particular, \(G\) is non-abelian and generated by two elements (also, as a consequence of the formula of Riemann-Hurwitz, \(2(g-1) < |G| \leq 4(g-1)\)). Two \(G\)-actions on a surface are equivalent if they are conjugate by a diffeomorphism of the surface (i.e., not allowing automorphisms of \(G\)). The main result of the paper states then that, for a non-abelian 2-generator group \(G\), the equivalence classes of large, almost free \(G\)-actions on closed orientable surfaces correspond to the Nielsen equivalence classes of generating pairs of \(G\) (which occur as \(p(A), p(B)\) for surjections \(p\) as above). We recall that two generating pairs are Nielsen equivalent if one can be obtained form the other by multiplying a generator by the other generator or its inverse, and then iterating; a crucial point in the proof of the main result is the fact that any two generating pairs of a group \(\Gamma_n\) are Nielsen equivalent. As applications and illustrations, the large, almost free actions on surfaces of genus 3 and 4 are considered as well as actions of the alternating group \(A_5\) and the special linear groups \(\text{SL}(2,p)\), \(p\) prime.