Density of shapes of periodic tori in the cubic case

Abstract

Consider the compact orbits of the $\mathbb{R}^2$ action of the diagonal group on $\operatorname{SL}(3,\mathbb{R})/\operatorname{SL}(3,\mathbb{Z})$, the so-called periodic tori. For any periodic torus, the set of periods of the orbit forms a lattice in $\mathbb{R}^2$. Such a lattice, re-scaled to covolume one, gives a shape point in $\operatorname{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})/\operatorname{SL}(2,\mathbb{Z})$. We prove that the shapes of all periodic tori are dense in $\operatorname{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})/\operatorname{SL}(2,\mathbb{Z})$. This implies the density of shapes of the unit groups of totally real cubic orders.