Rigidity and flexibility for handlebody groups (Q1645343)

Let \(\Sigma_g\) denote a closed surface of genus \(g\) and let \(\mathrm{Mcg}(\Sigma_g)\) denote the mapping class group of \(\Sigma_g\). The subgroup \(\Gamma<\mathrm{Mcg}(\Sigma)_g)\) is said to be \textit{rigid in} \(\mathrm{Mcg}(\Sigma_g)\) if every injective map \(f:\Gamma\to \mathrm{Mcg}(\Sigma_g)\) is (the restriction of) an inner automorphism of \(\mathrm{Mcg}(\Sigma_g)\). The \textit{handlebody group} \(\mathscr{H}_g< \mathrm{Mcg}(\Sigma_g)\) consists of those mapping classes which extend to a given handlebody \(V\) with boundary \(\Sigma_g\). As the title suggests, there is a rigidity result and a flexibility result. The rigidity result is the following. Finite index subgroups of \(\mathscr{H}_g\) are rigid in \(\mathrm{Mcg}(\Sigma_g)\). As a consequence, the abstract commensurator of \(\mathscr{H}_g\) is \(\mathscr{H}_g\), which improves upon the main result in [\textit{M. Korkmaz} and \textit{S. Schleimer}, ``Automorphisms of the disk complex'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:0910.2038}]. The proof of this result pairs two new techniques with a modification of a standard argument of Ivanov, which could be of interest in studying rigidity of other subgroups of \(\mathrm{Mcg}(\Sigma_g)\). The flexibility result, by contrast, is the following. If \(2\leq g<h\), there is always a finite index subgroup \(\Gamma < \mathscr{H}_g\) and an injection \(f:\Gamma\to \mathrm{Mcg}(\Sigma_g)\) whose image is not conjugate into \(\mathscr{H}_g\). The construction of these examples is explicit and an illustrative figure in genus \(2\) is provided. A complete characterization of rigidity and flexibility is provided: if \(\Sigma'\to \Sigma\) is a finite normal cover of a surface of genus \(g\geq 3\), and \(\Gamma<\mathscr{H}_g\) is a finite index subgroup whose elements lift to \(\Sigma'\), then if \(\Gamma'\) is a finite index subgroup of the lifts of elements of \(\Gamma\), then \(\Gamma'\) is conjugate into a handlebody group of \(\Sigma'\) if and only if \(\Sigma'\to\Sigma\) can be extended to a cover of handlebodies.