Braids and Nielsen-Thurston types of automorphisms of punctured surfaces (Q819518)

Let \(F\) be a compact, orientable surface of negative Euler characteristic, and let \(x_1, \dots, x_n\) be contained in the interior of \(F\), with each \(x_i\) contained within a small disc \(D_i \subset F\). Let \(f\) be a self-diffeomorphism of \(F\) which is isotopic to the identity and satisfies \(f(\{x_1, \dots, x_n\})=\{x_1, \dots, x_n\}\), and \(f(D_1 \cup \cdots \cup D_n)=D_1 \cup \cdots \cup D_n\). Let \(\widehat{f}\) be the restriction of \(f\) to \(F- int(D_1 \cup \cdots \cup D_n)\). Using properties of a braid associated to \(f\), the authors classify \(\widehat{f}\) according to the so-called Nielsen-Thurston types, namely periodic, reducible, or pseudo-Anosov [see \textit{W. Thurston}, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Astérisque, 66--67, Paris: Société Mathématique de France (1991; Zbl 0731.57001)]). Specifically, if we let \(\Phi:F\times I\to F\times I\) be an isotopy from \(f\) to the identity map, then we have the braid \(b^f=(t_1^f(I), \dots, t_n^f(I))\) in \(F\times I\), where \(t_i^f:I\to F\times I\) by \(t_i^f(t)=\Phi(x_i,t)\). The authors make the following definitions: A subfamily \(\{t_{i_1}, \dots, t_{i_k}\}\) is cyclic if \(p((t_{i_1} \cup \cdots \cup t_{i_k}) \cap (F\times \{0\}))= p((t_{i_1} \cup \cdots \cup t_{i_k}) \cap (F\times \{1\}))\), (where \(p\) is the projection to \(F\)), and no proper subfamily satisfies this condition. Each cyclic subfamily defines a closed curve \(c_i\) on \(F\) by taking the product of the paths \(p(t_{i_1}), \dots, p(t_{i_k})\). Let \(\mathcal{C}=\{c_1, \dots, c_m\}\) be the set of all such closed curves determined by the set of all cyclic subfamilies of \(b^f\). The braid \(b^f\) is filling if \(\mathcal{C}\) fills \(F\), and \(b^f\) is stably filling if every braid equivalent to \(b^f\) is filling. Next, a subset \(\{t_{i_1}, \dots, t_{i_k}\}\), \(k\geq 2\) is a parallel family of \(b\) if there is a level-preserving embedding \(\eta:D_1\times I \cup \cdots \cup D_{k'}\times I \to F\times I\) such that \(\eta(D_1\times I \cup \cdots \cup D_{k'}\times I)\) contains \(t_{i_1}, \dots, t_{i_k}\) and does not intersect any other strands, and \(p(\eta(D_1\times \{0\} \cup \cdots \cup D_{k'}\times \{0\}))=p(\eta(D_1\times \{1\} \cup \cdots \cup D_{k'}\times \{1\}))\). A subset \(\{t_{i_1}, \dots, t_{i_k}\}\), \(k\geq 1\), is a peripheral family of \(b\) if there is a regular neighborhood \(N\) of a component of \((\partial F)\times I\) which contains \(t_{i_1}, \dots, t_{i_k}\) and does not intersect any other strands, and \(p(N\cap (F\times \{0\}))=p(N\cap (F\times \{1\}))\). A subset \(\{t_{i_1}, \dots, t_{i_k}\}\) is a P-family if it is either a parallel family or a peripheral family. The authors' theorem then states: (i) \(\widehat{f}\) is isotopic to a periodic automorphism if and only if \(b^f\) is trivial. (ii) \(\widehat{f}\) is isotopic to a reducible automorphism if and only if \(b^f\) either has a P-family or is not stably filling. (iii) \(\widehat{f}\) is isotopic to a pseudo-Anosov automorphism if and only if \(b^f\) is stably filling and has no P-families.