English

Subgroups of mapping class groups related to Heegaard splittings and bridge decompositions

Geometric Topology 2013-11-04 v2

Abstract

Let M=H1SH2M=H_1\cup_S H_2 be a Heegaard splitting of a closed orientable 3-manifold MM (or a bridge decomposition of a link exterior). Consider the subgroup MCG0(Hj)\mathrm{MCG}^0(H_j) of the mapping class group of HjH_j consisting of mapping classes represented by auto-homeomorphisms of HjH_j homotopic to the identity, and let GjG_j be the subgroup of the automorphism group of the curve complex CC(S)\mathcal{CC}(S) obtained as the image of MCG0(Hj)\mathrm{MCG}^0(H_j). Then the group G=<G1,G2>G=<G_1, G_2> generated by G1G_1 and G2G_2 preserve the homotopy class in MM of simple loops on SS. In this paper, we study the structure of the group GG and the problem to what extent the converse to this observation holds.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1308.0888,
  title  = {Subgroups of mapping class groups related to Heegaard splittings and bridge decompositions},
  author = {Ken'ichi Ohshika and Makoto Sakuma},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1308.0888},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

19 pages: the second version. The assumption of Theorem 3 has been changed from the bounded geometry to the bounded combinatorics