One parameter families of Riemann surfaces and presentations of elements of mapping class group by Dehn twists (Q2497095)

The most simple (topological) monodromy of a family of curves is the conjugacy class of a right handed Dehn twist. The monodromy of a degeneration is the conjugacy class of a right handed Dehn twist if and only if it is of Lefschetz type [cf. \textit{P. Deligne} and \textit{N. Katz}, Seminaire de géométrie algébrique du Bois-Marie 1967-1969. Groupes de monodromie en géométrie algébrique, Lect. Notes Math. 340, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-New York (1973; Zbl 0258.00005)]. Motivated by the fact that each element of the mapping class group is a product of Dehn twists, the author studies the presentation of monodromy homomorphisms by using products of Dehn twists. This can be done via deformations of degenerations (splitting families). He works out the case of a family obtained from a double covering of \(\mathbb P\times \Delta\), where \(\Delta\) is certain open ball in \(\mathbb C\) and conclude that a presentation via splitting families is not necessarily the shortest one.