This article is cited in 2 papers

Double pants decompositions of 2-surfaces

Anna Felikson^ab, Sergey Natanzon<sup>cde

a</sup> Independent University of Moscow
^b Jacobs University, Bremen
^c Institute Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow
^d Higher School of Economics, Moscow
^e Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Moscow State University, Moscow

Abstract: We consider the union of two pants decompositions of the same orientable 2-dimensional surface of any genus $g$. Each pants decomposition corresponds to a handlebody bounded by this surface, so two pants decompositions correspond to a Heegaard splitting of a 3-manifold. We introduce a groupoid acting on double pants decompositions. This groupoid is generated by two simple transformations (called flips and handle twists), each transformation changing only one curve of the double pants decomposition. We prove that the groupoid acts transitively on all double pants decompositions corresponding to Heegaard splittings of a 3-dimensional sphere. As a corollary, we prove that the mapping class group of the surface is contained in the groupoid.

Key words and phrases: pants decomposition, Heegaard splitting, mapping class group.

MSC: 57M50

Received: June 18, 2010; in revised form December 7, 2010

Language: English

DOI: 10.17323/1609-4514-2011-11-2-231-258

Bibliographic databases:

• 
•