Curves intersecting exactly once and their dual cube complexes (Q2406848)

Let \(S=S_g\) be an oriented compact surface of genus \(g\), \(g\geq 2\), and \(\text{Mod}^*(S)\) be its extended mapping class group. Denote by \(\mathcal{J}(S)\) the set of isotopy classes of essential simple closed curves on \(S\). The main result of the paper is Theorem~1 which states that there are at least \(2^{g-3}/(g-1)\) and at most \((4g^2+2g)!\) distinct \(\text{Mod}^*(S)\) orbits of collections of \(2g+1\) simple closed curves pairwise intersecting once. As a corollary, we obtain that the number of maximal cardinality cliques of \(\mathcal{SC}(S_g)\), inequivalent under the action of \(\text{Aut}(\mathcal{SC})\), grows at least exponentially in~\(g\). Here \(\mathcal{SC}(S_g)\) is the systole graph whose vertices are isotopy classes of nonseparating simple closed curves, and edges join vertices if the corresponding curves intersect exactly once. The theorem gives an answer to a question posed by \textit{J. Malestein} et al. [Geom. Dedicata 168, 221--233 (2014; Zbl 1284.57020)]. In the present paper, one of the main tools in the investigation of \(\text{Mod}^*(S)\) orbits is the usage of the dual cube complex \(C(\Gamma)\), in the sense of \textit{M. Sageev} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 71, No. 3, 585--617 (1995; Zbl 0861.20041)], for a curve system \(\Gamma\subset \mathcal{J}(S)\). Theorem~2, in particular, shows that the complex \(C(\Gamma)\) defines the equivalence class of \(\Gamma\) under the action of \(\text{Mod}^*(S)\). A complete \(1\)-system is a subset \(\Gamma\subset \mathcal{J}(S)\) in which any two curves intersect exactly once; a complete \(1\)-system of maximal possible size is called maximal. Of interest is Proposition 1.2 which claims that for every even \(k\in[\lfloor g/2\rfloor,g]\) there exists a complete \(1\)-system of size \(2g+1\) whose dual cube complex has dimension \(k\). Theorem~3 gives a necessary and sufficient condition that, for a \(1\)-system \(\Gamma=\{\gamma_1,\ldots,\gamma_n\}\), the dual cube complex \(C(\Gamma)\) has dimension~\(n\).