Local monodromy on the fundamental groups of algebraic curves along a degenerate stable curve (Q1903686)

Given a family of smooth curves over a punctured disc we get monodromy on the general fibre, usually represented on \(H_1\). This representation is described by the Picard-Lefschetz transformation in terms of vanishing cycles. In the paper under review, the authors consider more generally a family of curves over a polydisc, appearing as the universal local deformation of a so-called stable pointed curve; and their object is to describe the monodromy representation into the group of outer automorphisms of the fundamental group of the general curve (referred to as the non-abelian case). Their ambition is to do so combinatorically. For that purpose they bring in notions as graphs of groups (with groups occurring at vertices, and maps on edges), and describe those in terms of the combinatorical data of the degenerate fiber, in terms of its dual graph, and so-called edge twists. They apply this machinery to study naturally induced filtrations on the image of the monodromy group.