Subdirect products of \(M^*\)-groups. (Q691513)

By work of the first author of this paper [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 63, 273-280 (1977; Zbl 0422.30038); Glasg. Math. J. 18, 1-10 (1977; Zbl 0363.14008)], it is known that the number of automorphisms of a compact bordered Klein surface of genus \(g>1\) is bounded above by \(12(g-1)\), and that this bound is attained for infinitely many \(g\). When the bound is attained, the automorphism group of the surface is known as an \(M^*\)-group. Such groups are precisely the smooth quotients of \(\mathrm{PGL}(2,\mathbb Z)\), namely those finite groups which can be generated by three elements \(x,y\) and \(t\) such that \(x^2=y^3=t^2=(xt)^2=(yt)^2=1\) and the orders of \(x,y,t,xt\) and \(yt\) are exactly \(2,3,2,2\) and \(2\). In this paper, the authors describe a method for constructing a larger \(M^*\)-group from two smaller \(M^*\)-groups \(G\) and \(H\), by taking a sub-direct product (which is a subgroup of \(G\times H\) that projects onto both factors). They also derive a number of conditions under which the direct product \(G\times H\) itself is an \(M^*\)-group.