Large finite group actions on surfaces: Hurwitz groups, maximal reducible and maximal handlebody groups, bounding and non-bounding actions

Abstract: We consider large finite group-actions on surfaces and discuss and compare various notions for such actions: Hurwitz actions and Hurwitz groups; maximal reducible and completely reducible actions; bounding and geometrically bounding actions; maximal handlebody groups and maximal bounded surface groups; in particular, we discuss small simple groups of various types. A Hurwitz group is a finite group of orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms of maximal possible order $84(g-1)$ of a closed orientable surface of genus $g>1$. A maximal handlebody group instead is a group of orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms of maximal possible order $12(g-1)$ of a 3-dimensional handlebody of genus $g>1$. Among others, we consider the question of when a Hurwitz group acting on a surface of genus $g$ contains a subgroup of maximal possible order $12(g-1)$ extending to a handlebody (or, more generally, a maximal reducible group extending to a product with handles), and show that such Hurwitz groups are closely related to the smallest Hurwitz group ${\rm PSL}_2(7)$ of order 168 acting on Klein's quartic of genus 3. We discuss simple groups of small order which are maximal handlebody groups and, more generaly, maximal reducible groups. We discuss also the problem of which Hurwitz actions bound geometrically, and in particular whether Klein's quartic bounds geometrically: does there exist a compact hyperbolic 3-manifold with totally geodesic boundary isometric to Klein's quartic? Finally, large bounding and non-bounding actions on surfaces of genus 2, 3 and 4 are discussed in section 3.