Remarks on Thurston's construction of pseudo-Anosov maps of Riemann surfaces (Q926017)

Let \(R\) be an analytically finite Riemann surface. If \(\gamma \subset R\) is any homotopically non-trivial simple closed curve, then denote by \(t_{\gamma}\) the Dehn-twist along it (once an orientation on \(\gamma\) is provided). Two homotopically non-trivial simple closed curves on \(R\), say \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) are said to fill if \(R-\{\alpha,\beta\}\) consists of discs and punctured discs. Let \(\widetilde{S}\) be a analytically finite Riemann surface of type \((p,n)\), that is a the complement of \(n\) points in a closed Riemann surface of genus \(p\). Assume \(\widetilde S\) is hyperbolic, that is, its universal cover is the hyperbolic plane; equivalently \(3p-3+n>0\). Let \(a \in \widetilde{S}\) and set \(S=\widetilde{S}-\{a\}\). There is a natural surjective map \(\iota : \text{Mod}_{S}^{a} \to \text{Mod}(\widetilde{S})\), where \(\text{Mod}(\widetilde{S})\) denotes the modular group of \(\widetilde{S}\) and \(\text{Mod}_{S}^{a}\) denotes the subgroup of \(\text{Mod}_{S}\) consisting of the elements that fix \(a\). Let \(\widetilde{\alpha}, \widetilde{\beta}\) be a pair of filling simple closed curves on \(\widetilde{S}\). W. Thurston proved that for every pair of positive integers \(n\) and \(m\) it holds that \(t_{\widetilde{\alpha}}^{n} \circ t_{\widetilde{\beta}}^{m}\) is pseudo-Anosov. More generally, if \(n_{1},\dots,n_{r}, m_{1},...,m_{r}\) are non-negative integers so that at least for some \(i\) it holds that \(n_{i}\) and \(m_{i}\) are both positive, then \[ f=\prod_{j=1}^{r} t_{\widetilde{\alpha}}^{n_{j}} \circ t_{\widetilde{\beta}}^{m_{j}} \] is pseudo-Anosov. In this paper the author proves that there are infinitely many pseudo-Anosov classes on \(S\) that project under \(\iota\) to the class representing \(f\).