Poincaré's theorem for the modular group of real Riemann surfaces (Q734726)

The modular group or mapping class group, Mod\(_g\), of a closed orientable surface \(S\) of genus \(g\) is the group of orientation preserving homeomorphisms of \(S\) modulo such homeomorphisms isotopic to the identity. Each element in Mod\(_g\) induces on the first homology group \(H_1(S,\mathbb{Z})\) a symplectic automorphism. In this way, there is a homomorphism from Mod\(_g\) to the symplectic group \(Sp(2g, \mathbb{Z})\). Poincaré proved that this homomorphism is an epimorphism. The paper under review establishes the analogous result of Poincaré's theorem for the real modular group of a real Riemann surface. A real Riemann surface is a pair \((S,\sigma)\) where \(S\) is a closed orientable surface of genus \(g\) and \(\sigma\) is an orientation reversing involution of \(S\). The real modular group Mod\(_g^\sigma\) of \((S,\sigma)\) is the group of orientation preserving homeomorphisms of \((S,\sigma)\) commutative with \(\sigma\) modulo such homeomorphisms isotopic to the identity. The involution \(\sigma\) induces an involution \(\sigma_H\) on \(H_1(S,\mathbb{Z})\). Each element in Mod\(_g^\sigma\) induces on \(H_1(S,\mathbb{Z})\) a symplectic automorphism commutative with \(\sigma_H\). The the analogy result of Poincaré's theorem is that if \(\sigma\) fixes not points, the image of Mod\(_g^\sigma\) in \(Sp(2g, \mathbb{Z})\) are those group elements of \(Sp(2g, \mathbb{Z})\) commutative with \(\sigma_H\). If the fixed set of \(\sigma\) is nonempty, \(\sigma\) fixes \(k\) disjoint simple closed curves. In this situation, the image of Mod\(_g^\sigma\) in \(Sp(2g, \mathbb{Z})\) is also identified in this paper. The quotient of \(S\) by the cyclic group generated by \(\sigma\) may be orientable or non-orientable. The two possibilities are treated separately.