Real genus actions of finite simple groups (Q5948865)

Let \(X\) be a compact bordered Klein surface of genus \(g\) whose boundary has \(k >0\) boundary components. The algebraic genus of \(X\) is the nonnegative integer \(p(X)=\varepsilon g+k-1\), where \(\varepsilon=2\) if \(X\) is orientable and \(\varepsilon=1\) otherwise. The real genus \(\rho(G)\) of a finite group \(G\) is the minimum algebraic genus of any compact bordered Klein surface on which \(G\) acts as a group of dianalytic automorphisms. The paper under review provides a lot of information, some known and some new, about this invariant. These new results mainly concern the real genus of simple groups. Recall that if \(t\geq s\geq 2\) are integers, the group \(G\) is said to be a \((2,s,t)\)-group if it is generated by three elements \(A,B,C\) such that \(A^2=B^s =C^t=ABC=1\). The main result of the paper is Theorem 1 which states that if \(G\) is a finite simple \((2,s,t)\)-group which acts as a group of dianalytic automorphisms on a surface \(X\) of algebraic genus \(\rho(G)\), then \(G\) is a normal subgroup of the full automorphism group \(\Aut(X)\), the index \([\Aut(X):G]\) divides 4 and \(\Aut(X)\) embeds faithfully in \(\Aut(G)\). The author calculates also the real genus of the special linear groups \(\text{PSL} (2,q)\). This beautiful paper, whose proofs are simple and clear, finishes with a list of interesting open questions. Among them the computation of \(\rho(A_n)\), which is known for \(n>167\), and \(\rho(\text{PSL} (3,q))\), and the classification of all simple groups \(G\) which are the full automorphism group of those surfaces of algebraic genus \(\rho(G)\) on which \(G\) acts.