The pseudo-real genus of a group (Q2193252)

A compact Riemann surface is called pseudo-real if it admits anticonformal automorphisms, but no anticonformal automorphism of order \(2\). These surfaces are important because in the moduli space of Riemann surfaces of a given genus, they represent the points that have real moduli but are not definable over the reals. There are no pseudo-real surfaces of genus \(0\) or \(1\), and conversely there exist pseudo-real surfaces of genus \(g\) for every \(g \geq 2\). The present paper deals with the automorphism groups of pseudo-real surfaces. The more general result in that question is the upper bound for the number of automorphisms of such a surface of genus \(g \geq 2\), which is \(12(g-1)\) as was proved by \textit{E. Bujalance} et al. in [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 362, 3365--3376 (2010; Zbl 1201.30047)]. Two parameters are introduced and studied in the present paper, which are related to other well-known previous definitions. We just mention the symmetric genus of a group \(G\), \(\sigma (G)\), which is the smallest genus of a Riemann surface on which \(G\) acts as a group of automorphisms, some of them maybe reversing orientation. The authors define here the pseudo-real genus of a finite group \(G\), \(\psi (G)\), as the smallest genus of a pseudo-real Riemann surface on which \(G\) acts as an automorphism group, possibly but not necessarily preserving orientation. Besides, \(\psi^*(G)\), the strong pseudo-real genus, is defined as the smallest genus of a pseudo-real Riemann surface on which \(G\) acts as an automorphism group, without preserving orientation, if it exists. Obviously \(\psi (G) \leq \psi^*(G)\) if the second parameter is defined. The main result is obtained in Section 3. It may be summarized by saying that for every \(g \geq 2\) there exists a group \(G\) such that \(\psi (G) = \psi^*(G) = g\). Namely, for any \(n > 0\), \(\psi^*(C_{4n}) = 2n\) (Proposition 3.1), and \(\psi^*(C_{4n} \rtimes_{2n-1} C_2) = 2n+1\) (Proposition 3.2), while for both families of groups, say \(G\), \(\psi (G) = \psi^*(G)\) (Proposition 3.3). Section 4 gives a number of results and open problems on these parameters. Firstly, Table 1 gives for every group \(G\) with order up to \(15\) the values of \(\psi (G)\), and of \(\psi^*(G)\) if this exists. Also, examples are shown of a group \(G\) satisfying \(\psi (G) = \sigma (G) < \psi^*(G)\), and of a group \(H\), for which \(\psi (H) = \psi^*(H) = \sigma (H)\). The reviewer must highlight that this article is written in a very clear, comprehensive, and self-contained way.