Full automorphism groups of large order of compact bordered Klein surfaces (Q6038500)

Bordered Klein surfaces differ from Riemann surfaces in that they have non-empty boundary, and besides they can be non-orientable. A fundamental topic on both Riemann and Klein surfaces is the study of their automorphism groups. Since XIX century, a lot of results have been obtained in large -with respect to the genus- groups of automorphisms of Riemann surfaces. In turn, the knowledge on large automorphism groups of bordered Klein surfaces is lesser.This study is just the goal of the paper under review. Let \(g \geq 2\). Then, if \(S\) is a bordered Klein surface of (algebraic) genus \(g\), it has at most \(12(g-1)\) automorphisms. In this paper, the authors consider surfaces \(S\) of genus \(g\) having an automorphism group \(G\) of order at least \(4(g-1)\), the so-called large automorphism group. Then, the question is whether that group \(G\) is the full group of automorphisms of \(S\), \(\mathrm{Aut}(S)\), or else the action of \(G\) extends to a larger group. The main tool in the paper is the theory of NEC groups, which due to Uniformization Theorem describe both the surfaces and their automorphism groups. In Section 1, the possible orders of \(G\) between \(4(g-1)\) and \(12(g-1)\) are obtained, as well as the respective signatures of the corresponding NEC groups. In Section 2 the authors consider the problem of extendability, that is to say, when a group \(G\) acts on a surface \(S\) but is not the full automorphism group of \(S\). These results are applied in Section 3 for groups \(G\) of order \(4(g-1)\), and in Section 4 for groups \(G\) of order \(6(g-1)\), which are the only values of the order of \(G\), \(|G|\), for which the action is extendable, by a divisibility argument. In order to summarize the results of Section 3, we outline that for \(|G| = 4(g-1)\) there are seven possible signatures. For one of them the action of \(G\) is not extendable; for two of them the three possibilities, namely that the order of \(\mathrm{Aut}(S)\) be \(4(g-1)\), \(8(g-1)\) or \(12(g-1)\) can occur; and for the four remaining signatures, \(\mathrm{Aut}(S)\) can have order \(4(g-1)\) or \(8(g-1)\). Each of all those possibilities holds for infinitely many values of \(g\). This is shown by constructing explicitly the respective automorphism groups for a family of surfaces, and describing their algebraic structure. In case \(|G| = 6(g-1)\) there are four signatures involved. For one of them the action of \(G\) never extends, while for the three remaining, \(\mathrm{Aut}(S)\) can be \(G\) or a group of order \(12(g-1)\). Again all possibilities hold for infinitely many values of \(g\), and the corresponding groups of automorphisms are obtained. The paper is very clearly organized and written, and the authors provide a very useful amount of details.