Geodesic flows and the mother of all continued fractions

We extend the Series [The modular surface and continued fractions, J. London Math. Soc. (2) 31(1) (1985) 69–80] connection between the modular surface [Formula: see text], cutting sequences, and regular continued fractions to the slow converging Lehner and Farey continued fractions with digits [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] in the notation used for the Lehner continued fractions. We also introduce an alternative insertion and singularization algorithm for Farey expansions and other non-semiregular continued fractions, and an alternative dual expansion to the Farey expansions so that [Formula: see text] is invariant under the natural extension map.

Translates of rational points along expanding closed horocycles on the modular surface

We study the limiting distribution of the rational points under a horizontal translation along a sequence of expanding closed horocycles on the modular surface. Using spectral methods we confirm equidistribution of these sample points for any translate when the sequence of horocycles expands within a certain polynomial range. We show that the equidistribution fails for generic translates and a slightly faster expanding rate. We also prove both equidistribution and non-equidistribution results by obtaining explicit limiting measures while allowing the sequence of horocycles to expand arbitrarily fast. Similar results are also obtained for translates of primitive rational points.

Classification of periodic transformations of an orientable surface of genus two

In this paper, we find all admissible topological conjugacy classes of periodic transformations of a two-dimensional surface of genus two. It is proved that there are exactly seventeen pairwise topologically non-conjugate orientation-preserving periodic pretzel transformations. The implementation of all classes by lifting the full characteristics of mappings from a modular surface to a surface of genus two is also presented. The classification results are based on Nielsen’s theory of periodic surface transformations, according to which the topological conjugacy class of any such homeomorphism is completely determined by its characteristic. The complete characteristic carries information about the genus of the modular surface, the ramified bearing surface, the periods of the ramification points and the turns around them. The necessary and sufficient conditions for the admissibility of the complete characteristic are described by Nielsen and for any surface they give a finite number of admissible collections. For surfaces of a small genus, one can compile a complete list of admissible characteristics, which was done by the authors of the work for a surface of genus 2.

Primitive rational points on expanding horocycles in products of the modular surface with the torus

We prove effective equidistribution of primitive rational points and of primitive rational points defined by monomials along long horocycle orbits in products of the torus and the modular surface. This answers a question posed in joint work by the first and the last named author with Shahar Mozes and Uri Shapira. Under certain congruence conditions we prove the joint equidistribution of conjugate rational points in the $2$ -torus and the modular surface.

Volumes of Hyperbolic Three-Manifolds Associated with Modular Links

Periodic geodesics on the modular surface correspond to periodic orbits of the geodesic flow in its unit tangent bundle PSL 2 ( Z ) ∖ PSL 2 ( R ) . A finite collection of such orbits is a collection of disjoint closed curves in a 3-manifold, in other words a link. The complement of those links is always a hyperbolic 3-manifold, and hence has a well-defined volume. We present strong numerical evidence that, in the case of the set of geodesics corresponding to the ideal class group of a real quadratic field, the volume has linear asymptotics in terms of the total length of the geodesics. This is not the case for general sets of geodesics.