The compression body graph has infinite diameter (Q1983581)

Let \(S\) be a closed surface. A compression body is obtained from \(S\times\left[0,1\right]\) by attaching \(2\)-handles to \(S\times \left\{0\right\}\). A marked compression body is a compression body with a fixed homeomorphism \(S\to S\times \left\{1\right\}\). The isomorphism classes of marked non-trivial compression bodies form the vertex set of the compression body graph, in which two isomorphism classes are considered to be adjacent when one marked compression body is contained in the other. There is a homomorphism from the mapping class group of \(S\) to the group of simplicial automorphisms of the compression body graph. For \(genus(S)\ge 3\) it is an isomorphism, for \(genus(S)=2\), its kernel consists of hyperelliptic involutions. The compression body graph is quasi-isometric to the space obtained from the curve complex by coning off all disk sets of marked compression bodies, that is the sets of curves in \(S\) that bound disks in one marked compression body. Because the curve complex is hyperbolic, this implies hyperbolicity of the compression body graph. The paper under review shows that the compression body graph has infinite diameter. This result has already been used in work of Agol-Freedman, Burton-Purcell, Dang-Purcell and Ma-Wang. Moreover, the authors use their methods to prove that there are mapping classes, which act as loxodromic isometries on the compression body graph. They actually show that such mapping classes exist in every subgroup of the Johnson filtration.