A Note on Chains and Bounding Pairs of Dehn Twists

Abstract

Let N-g(k) be a nonorientable surface of genus g with k punctures. In the first part of this note, after introducing preliminary materials, we will give criteria for a chain of Dehn twists to bound a disc. Then, we will show that automorphisms of the mapping class groups map disc bounding chains of Dehn twists to such chains. In the second part of the note, we will introduce bounding pairs of Dehn twists and give an algebraic characterization for such pairs.