Generating the mapping class group of a punctured surface by involutions (Q763993)

It is a well-known consequence of the lantern relations in mapping class groups that mapping class groups of surfaces can be generated by finitely many involutions. The article under review extends work of Kassabov, which shows that the mapping class group of a surface \(S_{g,b}\) of genus \(g\) with \(b\) punctures is generated by four involutions if \(g>7\) or if \(g=7\) and \(b\) is even, five involutions if \(g>5\) or if \(g=5\) and \(b\) is even, and by six involutions if \(g>3\) or if \(g=3\) and \(b\) is even. The author complements these results by showing that the mapping class group is generated by four involutions if \(g=7\) and \(b\) is odd, and by five involutions if \(g=5\) and \(b\) is odd.