Immersed surfaces in the modular orbifold

Danny Calegari; Joel Louwsma

doi:10.1090/s0002-9939-2011-10911-0

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arXiv · 1003.1532

Immersed surfaces in the modular orbifold

Danny Calegari·Joel Louwsma

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Abstract

A hyperbolic conjugacy class in the modular group PSL(2,Z) corresponds to a closed geodesic in the modular orbifold. Some of these geodesics virtually bound immersed surfaces, and some do not; the distinction is related to the polyhedral structure in the unit ball of the stable commutator length norm. We prove the following stability theorem: for every hyperbolic element of the modular group, the product of this element with a sufficiently large power of a parabolic element is represented by a geodesic that virtually bounds an immersed surface.

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Danny Calegari, Joel Louwsma. 2010-03-07. Immersed surfaces in the modular orbifold. https://doi.org/10.1090/s0002-9939-2011-10911-0

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