On a universal mapping class group of genus zero

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to introduce a group containing the mapping class groups of all genus zero surfaces. Roughly speaking, such a group is intended to be a discrete analogue of the diffeomorphism group of the circle. One defines indeed a {\it universal mapping class group of genus zero}, denoted $\B$. The latter is a nontrivial extension of the Thompson group $V$ (acting on the Cantor set) by an inductive limit of pure mapping class groups of all genus zero surfaces. We prove that $\B$ is a finitely presented group, and give an explicit presentation of it.