Hyperbolic mapping classes and their lifts on the Bers fiber space (Q2641573)

Let \(S\) be a Riemann surface of genus \(p\) with \(n\geq 1\) punctures and \( 3p-3+n>0\). Let us consider a puncture \(a\) of \(S\). Denote by Mod\(_{S}^{a}\) the subgroup of the mapping class group Mod\(_{S}\) consisting of elements fixing the puncture \(a\). Let \(\widetilde{S}=S\cup \{a\}\) and let Mod\(_{ \widetilde{S}}\) be its mapping class group. Every element \(\theta \) in Mod\( _{S}\) can be projected to an element \(\chi \) in Mod\(_{\widetilde{S}}\) under the forgetful map defined by filling in the puncture \(a\). Let \(i: \;\)Mod\( _{S}^{a}\rightarrow\) Mod\(_{\widetilde{S}}\) be the projection, \(i(\theta )=\chi \). In this paper the mapping classes in Mod\((S)\) that can be projected to a given hyperbolic mapping class in Mod\(_{\widetilde{S}}\) are studied. Let us suppose that \(\chi \) is a hyperbolic mapping class and let \(f: \widetilde{S}\rightarrow \widetilde{S}\) be an irreducible self-map, where \(f\) is a representative of \(\chi \). In the first main theorem the author proves that (i) if either \(\widetilde{S}\) is a compact Riemann surface without boundary or \(\widetilde{S}\) is non-compact and \(f\) fixes no puncture of \(\widetilde{S}\), then every element in \(i^{-1}(\chi )\subset \)Mod\( _{S}^{a}\) is hyperbolic; (ii) if \(\widetilde{S}\) is of finite type and \(f\) fixes a puncture of \(\widetilde{S}\), then an element \(\widetilde{\theta }\in \;\)Mod\(_{S}^{a}\) is pseudo-hyperbolic if and only if \([\widehat{f}]\), as an element of Mod\(_{\widetilde{S}}\), commutes with a parabolic element of \(G\), where \(G\) is a Fuchsian group uniformizing \(\widetilde{S}\) and \(\widetilde{f}\) is a lift of \(f\) representing \(\widetilde{\theta}\). From these results several Corollaries are obtained. In particular, if \(f\) fixes a puncture of \(\widetilde{S}\), then there are infinitely many pseudo-hyperbolic mapping classes in \(i^{-1}(\chi)\). It is also proved that if \(\widetilde{S}\) has some punctures and if \(f\) fixes a puncture then there exists an integer \(N\), only depending on the mapping class \(\chi \), such that \(i^{-1}(\chi^n )\) contains infinitely many hyperbolic mapping classes whenever \(n>N\) and there are infinitely many mapping classes in \( \bigcup\limits_{n\geq 1}\{i^{-1}(\chi ^{n})\}\). Basic properties about Teichmüller theory and absolutely extremal Teichmüller mappings are reviewed by the author, who also utilizes properties of Dehn twists in the proofs of some results.