The pants graph as a combinatorial model for the Teichmüller space of a non-orientable surface

We study the relation between the pants graph of a non-orientable surface and that of its orientable double cover. Given a non-orientable surface $N$ with orientable double cover $\pi \text{\hspace{0.17em}⁣}:S\to N$, we construct a natural map between pants graphs induced by lifting pants decompositions. We prove that this map defines a quasi-isometric embedding of $\mathrm{P}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{s}(N)$ into $\mathrm{P}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{s}(S)$. Using Brock’s quasi-isometry between $\mathrm{P}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{s}(S)$ and Teichmüller space $\mathrm{T}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{i}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{h}(S)$ endowed with the Weil-Petersson metric, together with the identification of the Teichmüller space of $N$ with the fixed-point locus of the deck involution on $\mathrm{T}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{i}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{h}(S)$, we prove that $\mathrm{P}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{s}(N)$ is quasi-isometric to the Teichmüller space of $N$ equipped with the induced Weil-Petersson metric.