Separable subgroups of mapping class groups (Q857031)

A subgroup \(H\) of a group \(G\) is said to be separable in \(G\) if \(H\) can be expressed as the intersection of finite index subgroups of \(G\). Thus, the trivial subgroup \(\{1\}\) of \(G\) is separable if and only if \(G\) is residually finite. \(G\) is said to be subgroup separable if every finitely generated subgroup of \(G\) is subgroup separable. Although the mapping class group of a compact orientable surface is not subgroup separable, it is shown that it contains large classes of separable subgroups. These classes include solvable subgroups, Heegaard groups, handlebody groups, geometric subgroups and all the terms in the so-called Johnson filtration.