Let $F_g$ denote a closed oriented surface of genus $g$. A set of simple closed curves is called a filling of $F_g$ if its complement is a disjoint union of discs. The mapping class group $text{Mod}(F_g)$ of genus $g$ acts on the set of fillings of $
F_g$. The union of the curves in a filling forms a graph on the surface which is a so-called decorated fat graph. It is a fact that two fillings of $F_g$ are in the same $text{Mod}(F_g)$-orbit if and only if the corresponding fat graphs are isomorphic. We prove that any filling of $F_2$ whose complement is a single disc (i.e., a so-called minimal filling) has either three or four closed curves and in each of these two cases, there is a unique such filling up to the action of $text{Mod}(F_2)$. We provide a constructive proof to show that the minimum number of discs in the complement of a filling pair of $F_2$ is two. Finally, given positive integers $g$ and $k$ with $(g, k) eq (2, 1)$, we construct a filling pair of $F_g$ such that the complement is a union of $k$ topological discs.
Given a hyperbolic surface, the set of all closed geodesics whose length is minimal form a graph on the surface, in fact a so-called fat graph, which we call the systolic graph. We study which fat graphs are systolic graphs for some surface (we call
these admissible). There is a natural necessary condition on such graphs, which we call combinatorial admissibility. Our first main result is that this condition is also sufficient. It follows that a sub-graph of an admissible graph is admissible. Our second major result is that there are infinitely many minimal non-admissible fat graphs (in contrast, for instance, to the classical result that there are only two minimal non-planar graphs).
