Orientation-reversing involutions on handlebodies

The observation that the quotient orbifold of an orientation- reversing involution on a 3-dimensional handlebody has the structure of a compression body leads to a strong classification theorem, and general structure theorems. The structure theorems decompose the action along invariant discs into actions on handlebodies which preserve the -fibers of some -bundle structure. As applications, various results of R. Nelson are proved without restrictive hypotheses.