Distance 4 curves on closed surfaces of arbitrary genus (Q2140640)

The \textit{curve graph} is a combinatorial object capturing the intersection patterns of (isotopy classes of) essential simple closed curves on a surface. It has proved remarkably successful in the study of mapping class groups, 3-manifolds and many other areas. While it is known that the curve graph has infinite diameter [\textit{H. A. Masur} and \textit{Y. N. Minsky}, Geom. Funct. Anal. 10, No. 4, 902--974 (2000; Zbl 0972.32011)], drawing explicit examples of vertices of even distance \(4\) is surprisingly challenging. In particular, it is not known what the minimal number of intersection points between two curves of distance \(4\) in a genus \(g\) surface is in general (see [\textit{T. Aougab} and \textit{S. Huang}, Algebr. Geom. Topol. 15, No. 2, 903--932 (2015; Zbl 1334.57013)] for asymptotic behaviour). In this article, the authors construct pairs of curves on genus \(g\) surfaces of curve graph distance \(4\) and intersection number \((2g-1)^2\).