Automorphisms of trivalent graphs

Abstract

Let $G_{g,b}$ be the set of all uni/trivalent graphs representing the combinatorial structures of pant decompositions of the oriented surface of genus $g$ with $b$ boundary components. We describe the set $A_{g,b}$ of all automorphisms of graphs in $G_{g,b}$ showing that, up to suitable moves changing the graph within $G_{g,b}$, any such automorphism can be reduced to elementary switches of adjacent edges.