The Hyperelliptic Mapping Class Group Of Klein Surfaces

Abstract

In this paper we study the algebraic structure of the hyperelliptic mapping class group of Klein surfaces, which is closely related to the mapping class group of punctured discs. This group plays an important role in the study of the moduli space of hyperelliptic real algebraic curves. Our main result provides a presentation by generators and relations for the hyperelliptic mapping class group of surfaces of prescribed topological type.