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Main Authors: Altunoz, Tulin, Pamuk, Mehmetcik, Yildiz, Oguz
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.16829
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author Altunoz, Tulin
Pamuk, Mehmetcik
Yildiz, Oguz
author_facet Altunoz, Tulin
Pamuk, Mehmetcik
Yildiz, Oguz
contents This chapter provides a comprehensive survey of foundational results and recent advances concerning minimal generating sets for the mapping class group of a nonorientable surface, $\mathrm{Mod}(N_{g})$, and its index-two twist subgroup, $\mathcal{T}_{g}$. Although the theory for orientable surfaces is well established, the nonorientable case presents unique challenges due to the presence of crosscaps, thus requiring generators beyond Dehn twists. We show that, for a sufficiently large genus $g$, both $\mathrm{Mod}(N_{g})$ and $\mathcal{T}_{g}$ are generated by two elements, which is the minimum possible number. The survey details various types of generating sets, including those composed of torsions, involutions, and commutators, illustrating the geometric and algebraic interplay. We unify foundational work with modern breakthroughs and extend results to punctured surfaces, $\mathrm{Mod}(N_{g,p})$, providing explicit generators, relations, and proof sketches with an emphasis on geometric intuition.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_16829
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Minimal Generation of Mapping Class Groups: A Survey of the Nonorientable Case
Altunoz, Tulin
Pamuk, Mehmetcik
Yildiz, Oguz
Geometric Topology
This chapter provides a comprehensive survey of foundational results and recent advances concerning minimal generating sets for the mapping class group of a nonorientable surface, $\mathrm{Mod}(N_{g})$, and its index-two twist subgroup, $\mathcal{T}_{g}$. Although the theory for orientable surfaces is well established, the nonorientable case presents unique challenges due to the presence of crosscaps, thus requiring generators beyond Dehn twists. We show that, for a sufficiently large genus $g$, both $\mathrm{Mod}(N_{g})$ and $\mathcal{T}_{g}$ are generated by two elements, which is the minimum possible number. The survey details various types of generating sets, including those composed of torsions, involutions, and commutators, illustrating the geometric and algebraic interplay. We unify foundational work with modern breakthroughs and extend results to punctured surfaces, $\mathrm{Mod}(N_{g,p})$, providing explicit generators, relations, and proof sketches with an emphasis on geometric intuition.
title Minimal Generation of Mapping Class Groups: A Survey of the Nonorientable Case
topic Geometric Topology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.16829