Functions on surfaces and incompressible subsurfaces

Abstract

Let $M$ be a smooth connected compact surface and $P$ be either a real line or a circle. This paper proceeds the study of the stabilizers and orbits of smooth functions on $M$ with respect to the right action of the group of diffeomorphisms of $M$. A large class of smooth maps $f:M\to P$ with isolated singularities is considered and it is shown that the general problem of calculation of the fundamental group of the orbit of $f$ reduces to the case when the Euler characteristic of $M$ is non-negative. For the proof of main result incompressible subsurfaces and cellular automorphisms of surfaces are investigated.