Commuting conjugates of finite-order mapping classes (Q2205665)

The main theorem of the present paper gives necessary and sufficient conditions for two finite-order mapping classes to have commuting conjugates (``weak commutativity'') in the mapping class group Mod(\(S_g\)) of a closed orientable surface \(S_g\) of genus \(g \ge 2\), using signatures and quotient-orbifold methods. As applications of the methods, the following topics are considered: Any finite-order mapping class whose corresponding orbifold is not a sphere (when realized by a perodic homeomorphism) has a conjugate that lifts to any finite-sheeted cyclic cover of the surface; any nontrivial torsion element in the centralizer of an \textit{irreducible} finite-order mapping class is of order at most 2; conditions for the \textit{primitivity} of a finite-order mapping class. Furthermore, a procedure is given for determining the explicit hyperbolic structures that realize two-generator finite abelian subgroups of Mod(\(S_g\)) as isometry groups (using also methods in a paper by \textit{S. Parsad}, \textit{ K. Rajeevsarathy} and \textit{B. Sanki} [``Geometric realizations of cyclic actions on surfaces'', J. Topol. Anal. 11, No. 4, 929--964 (2019; Zbl 1432.57047)], exhibiting various figures of embedded surfaces in Euclidean 3-space invariant under a finite group of Euclidean isometries (for such realizations, see also a paper by \textit{C. Wang}, \textit{S. C. Wang}, \textit{Y. M. Zhang} and the reviewer [``Embedding compact surfaces into the 3-dimensional Euclidean space with maximum symmetry'', Sci. China, Math. 60, No. 9, 1599--1614 (2017; Zbl 1387.57033)]. Finally, a list of the weak conjugacy classes of two-generator finite abelian subgroups of Mod(\(S_3\)) is given.