Algebraic linearity for an automorphism of a surface group

DOI10.1016/0022-4049(88)90094-1MaRDI QIDQ1103919zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Joan Birman, Caroline Series

Publication date 1988

Published in Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-4049(88)90094-1

zbMATH Keywords

action on the positive linear span of weightsautomorphism of the fundamental group of a surfacecoinitial graphscompact surface with boundaryisotopy classes of families of pairwise disjoint simple loopstrain tracks

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Fundamental groups and their automorphisms (group-theoretic aspects) (20F34) Fundamental group, presentations, free differential calculus (57M05)

Review text

Let W be a finite set of (cyclic) words in a free group. When studying the question whether W can be extended to a basis of the free group, Whitehead introduced a labelled graph G(W) now known as the coinitial graph associated to W. Now let M be a compact surface with boundary (so it has free fundamental group) and S(M) be the set of isotopy classes of families of pairwise disjoint simple loops on M. Then each \(\Lambda\in S(M)\) is represented by a set of cyclic words \(W_{\Lambda}\) in the fundamental group. ``Our first result is to show that the set of coinitial graphs of the \(W_{\Lambda}\), as \(\Lambda\) ranges over S(M), may be reinterpreted as a finite set of canonical `train tracks' (in the sense of Thurston) where the labels of the graph correspond to weights on these tracks. The second and main result of this paper is a linearity theorem which asserts that if an automorphism of the fundamental group of the surface is induced by a diffeomorphism and maps a set of weights supported to one track to a set of weights supported on the same or any other track, then, with some appropriate algebraic restrictions, the action is linear on the positive linear span of the weights (this is related to Thurston's theorem about the piecewise integral linearity of the action of pseudo-Anosov maps on S(M)). Then similar results are discussed for the case of closed surfaces, with some stronger restrictions on the automorphism.

Recommendations

• Train tracks and automorphisms of free groups
• A Whitehead algorithm for surface groups
• On visualization of the linearity problem for mapping class groups of surfaces
• Surface diffeomorphisms via train-tracks
• Automorphisms of the complex of curves

Cites work

• A Construction of Pseudo-Anosov Homeomorphisms
• An Algorithm for Simple Curves on Surfaces
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• On Certain Sets of Elements in a Free Group
• The geometry of Markoff numbers
• The infinite word problem and limit sets in Fuchsian groups

Cited in

(11)

• Pleating coordinates for the Earle embedding
• Complexity of geometric three-manifolds
• Combinatorics of simple closed curves on the twice punctured torus
• Surface subgroups from linear programming
• Surface diffeomorphisms via train-tracks
• Moves on curves on nonorientable surfaces
• Teichmüller theory, Thurston theory, extremal length geometry and complex analysis
• Geometric intersection numbers on a four-punctured sphere
• Tracing compressed curves in triangulated surfaces
• Entropy of real rational surface automorphisms: actions on the fundamental groups
• The Maskit embedding of the twice punctured torus

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