On diagrams of simplified trisections and mapping class groups (Q2176713)

A trisection, due to \textit{D. Gay} and \textit{R. Kirby} [Geom. Topol. 20, 3097--3132 (2016; Zbl 1372.57033)], is a decomposition of a \(4\)-manifold into three \(4\)-dimensional handlebodies. One can obtain a \(4\)-manifold with a trisection from a \(3\)-tuple of systems of simple closed curves in a closed surface, which is called a trisection diagram. Another way to obtain a trisection is through a stable map to the plane with a specific configuration of the critical value set, which is called a trisection map. \textit{R.I. Baykur} and \textit{O. Saeki} [``Simplifying indefinite fibrations on \(4\)-manifolds'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1710.06529}] introduced simplified trisections, which are trisection maps such that in their critical value set, there are no double points and cusps appear only in triples on innermost fold circles. In this paper, relying on the theory of mapping class groups of surfaces, the author studies trisection diagrams associated with simplified trisections. He gives a necessary and sufficient condition for a \(3\)-tuple of systems of simple closed curves in a surface to be a diagram of simplified trisection in terms of mapping class groups. As an application of this criterion, he shows that trisections of spun \(4\)-manifolds due to \textit{J. Meier} [Math. Res. Lett. 25, No. 5, 1497--1524 (2018; Zbl 1412.57016] are diffeomorphic (as trisections) to simplified ones. In the above mentioned paper, Baykur and Saeki gave an algorithmic construction of a simplified trisection from a directed broken Lefschetz fibration. The author also gives an algorithm to obtain a diagram of a simplified trisection derived from their construction.