Conjugacy classes of reflections of maps

DOI10.1007/S10958-017-3552-8MaRDI QIDQ1687946zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Gareth Jones

Publication date 4 January 2018

Published in Journal of Mathematical Sciences (New York) (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1412.1304

zbMATH Keywords

conjugacy class edge-transitive map face-transitive map involution reflections of a map vertex-transitive map

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Reflection groups, reflection geometries (51F15)

Abstract: This paper considers how many conjugacy classes of reflections a map can have, under various transitivity conditions. It is shown that for vertex- and for face-transitive maps there is no restriction on their number or size, whereas edge-transitive maps can have at most four classes of reflections. Examples are constructed, using topology, covering spaces and group theory, to show that various distributions of reflections can be achieved. Connections with real forms of algebraic curves are also discussed.

Review text

The author investigates vertex-transitive and edge-transitive maps. A map \(\mathcal{M}\) is called vertex-, edge-, or face-transitive if \(\Aut \mathcal{M}\) acts transitively on its vertices, edges, or faces, respectively. Theorem. Let \(G\) be a finite group with a subgroup \(G^+\) of index 2, and let \(K_1, \ldots, K_k\) be distinct conjugacy classes of involutions in \(G \backslash G^+\) for some \(k \geqslant 1\). Then there is a vertex-transitive map \(\mathcal{M}\), on a compact orientable surface without boundary, such that \(\Aut \mathcal{M}\cong G\) and the reflections of \(\mathcal{M}\) correspond to the elements of the conjugacy classes \(K_i\). Corollary. If \(c_1, \dots , c_k\) are positive integers for some \(k \geqslant 1\), then there is a vertex-transitive map \(\mathcal{M}\), on a compact orientable surface without boundary, such that the reflections of \(\mathcal{M}\) form \(k\) conjugacy classes of sizes \(c_1, \ldots, c_k\). Theorem. If \(\mathcal{M}\) is an edge-transitive map, then \( \Aut \mathcal{M}\) contains at most four conjugacy classes of reflections; if it has four, then \(\mathcal{M}\) is just-edge-transitive. The author presents generalizations of these results using an approach to maps based on group theory. He outlines the algebraic theory of maps. If \(H\) is a group of automorphisms of a map \(\mathcal{M}\), the number of conjugacy classes of reflections of \(\mathcal{M}\) in \(H\) will be denoted by \(\operatorname{cr}(H)\). The author proves the following two theorems. Theorem. Given any integers \(c_0, c_1, c_2 \geqslant 0\), with \(c_0, c_2 \geqslant 1\) if \(c_1\) is odd, there is a subgroup \(N\) of finite index in \(\Gamma\), with \(\operatorname{cr}_i(N) = c_i\) for \(i = 0,1,2\). Theorem. For each \(k = 1,2,3\), or \(4\) there exist infinitely many compact just-edge-transitive maps \(\mathcal{M}_k\) without boundary, such that \(\Aut \mathcal{M}_k\) contains exactly \(k\) conjugacy classes of reflections. These maps can be chosen to be orientable or non-orientable. The author's investigations include reflections of hypermaps and also Riemann surfaces and algebraic curves.

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