Copies of one-ended groups in mapping class groups (Q838394)

In this paper, \(\Sigma\) is a compact orientable surface with or without boundary, and \({\mathcal {MCG}}(\Sigma)\) is its mapping class group. A subgroup of \({\mathcal {MCG}}(\Sigma)\) is said to be purely pseudo-Anosiv if all its elements except the identity are pseudo-Anosov. The main result of this paper is that for any finitely presented one-ended group, the set of purely pseudo-Anosov subgroups of \({\mathcal {MCG}}(\Sigma)\) that are isomorphic to \(G\) is finite up to conjugacy in \({\mathcal {MCG}}(\Sigma)\). The proof relies on a result by B. Bowditch on the same problem for images of surface groups. The techniques of proof involve the action of \({\mathcal {MCG}}(\Sigma)\) on the curve complex of \(\Sigma\).