Totally geodesic subgraphs of the pants complex (Q935874)

Let \(S\) be a compact, connected and orientable surface, possibly with boundary, of genus \(g\) and \(| \partial S| \) boundary components. Since the work of \textit{A. E. Hatcher} and \textit{W. Thurston} [Topology 19, 221--237 (1980; Zbl 0447.57005)], to the surface \(S\) there is the associated pants graph \(\mathcal{P}(S).\) This is a simplicial graph, where the vertices are all the pants decompositions \(P\) of \(S\) and any two vertices are connected by an edge if they differ by an elementary move, namely, a move which consists in replacing a curve \(\alpha\) of \(P\) by another curve \(\beta\) intersecting \(\alpha\) minimally. The pants graph \(\mathcal{P}(S)\) is proved by \textit{J. F. Brock} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 16, 495--535 (2003; Zbl 1059.30036)] to be a combinatorial model for the completion of the Weil-Petersson metric on the Teichmüller space \(\text{Teich}(S)\) of \(S.\) In this article, the authors prove that every Farey graph \(\mathcal{F}\) which is embedded in the pants graph \(\mathcal{P}(S)\) is totally geodesic. This gives a complete analogy between the Farey subgraphs in the pants graph and the geometry of the corresponding strata lying in the completed Weil-Petersson space.