We find the minimum dilatation of pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms that stabilize an orientable foliation on surfaces of genus three, four, or five, and provide a lower bound for genus six to eight. Our technique also simplifies Cho and Ham's proof of the least dilatation of pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms on a genus two surface. For genus g=2 to 5, the mimimum dilatation is the smallest Salem number for polynomials of degree 2g.
The dilatation of a pseudo-Anosov braid is a conjugacy invariant. In this paper, we study the dilatation of a special family of pseudo-Anosov braids. We prove an inductive formula to compute their dilatation, a monotonicity and an asymptotic behavior of the dilatation for this family of braids. We also give an example of a family of pseudo-Anosov braids with arbitrarily small dilatation such that the mapping torus obtained from such braid has 2 cusps and has an arbitrarily large volume.
This paper concerns a family of pseudo-Anosov braids with dilatations arbitrarily close to one. The associated graph maps and train tracks have stable "star-like" shapes, and the characteristic polynomials of their transition matrices form Salem-Boyd sequences. These examples show that the logarithms of least dilatations of pseudo-Anosov braids on $2g+1$ strands are bounded above by $\log(2 + \sqrt{3})/g$. It follows that the asymptotic behavior of least dilatations of pseudo-Anosov, hyperelliptic surface homeomorphisms is identical to that found by Penner for general surface homeomorphisms. T…
In this paper, we give sufficient conditions for a Perron number, given as the leading eigenvalue of an aperiodic matrix, to be a pseudo-Anosov dilatation of a compact surface. We give an explicit construction of the surface and the map when the sufficient condition is met.
The minimum dilatation of pseudo-Anosov 5-braids is shown to be the largest zero $λ_5 \approx 1.72208$ of $x^4 - x^3 - x^2 - x + 1$ which is attained by $σ_1σ_2σ_3σ_4σ_1σ_2$.
The main result of this paper is a universal finiteness theorem for the set of all small dilatation pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms, ranging over all surfaces. More precisely, we consider pseudo-Anosovs F:S to S with |chi(S)| log(lambda(F)) bounded above by some constant, and we prove that, after puncturing the surfaces at the singular points of the stable foliations, the resulting set of mapping tori is finite. Said differently, there is a finite set of fibered hyperbolic 3-manifolds so that all small dilatation pseudo-Anosovs occur as the monodromy of a Dehn filling on one of the 3-manifolds in…
A filling curve $γ$ on a based surface $S$ determines a pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism $P(γ)$ of $S$ via the process of "point-pushing along $γ$." We consider the relationship between the self-intersection number $i(γ)$ of $γ$ and the dilatation of $P(γ)$; our main result is that the dilatation is bounded between $(i(γ)+1)^{1/5}$ and $9^{i(γ)}$. We also bound the least dilatation of any pseudo-Anosov in the point-pushing subgroup of a closed surface and prove that this number tends to infinity with genus. Lastly, we investigate the minimal entropy of any pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism obtained by pu…
Let $δ_{g,n}$ be the minimal dilatation of pseudo-Anosovs defined on an orientable surface of genus $g$ with $n$ punctures. Tsai proved that for any fixed $g \ge 2$, the logarithm of the minimal dilatation $\log δ_{g,n}$ is on the order of $\frac{\log n}{n}$. The main result of this paper is that if $2g+1$ is relatively prime to $s$ or $s+1$ for each $0 \le s \le g$, then $$\limsup_{n \to \infty} \frac{n \log δ_{g,n}}{\log n} \le 2.$$
The theme of this paper is that algebraic complexity implies dynamical complexity for pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms of a closed surface S_g of genus g. Penner proved that the logarithm of the minimal dilatation for a pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism of S_g tends to zero at the rate 1/g. We consider here the smallest dilatation of any pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism of S_g acting trivially on Gamma/Gamma_k, the quotient of Gamma = pi_1(S_g) by the k-th term of its lower central series, k > 0. In contrast to Penner's asymptotics, we prove that this minimal dilatation is bounded above and below, independen…
In this note, we deduce a partial answer to the question in the title. In particular, we show that asymptotically almost all bi-Perron algebraic unit whose characteristic polynomial has degree at most $2n$ do not correspond to dilatations of pseudo-Anosov maps on a closed orientable surface of genus $n$ for $n\geq 10$. As an application of the argument, we also obtain a statement on the number of closed geodesics of the same length in the moduli space of area one abelian differentials for low genus cases.
We construct infinite sequences of pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms without fixed points and leaving invariant a sequence of orientable measured foliations on the same topological surface and the same stratum of the space of abelian differentials. The existence of such sequences show that all pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms fixing orientable measured foliations cannot be obtained by the Rauzy-Veech induction strategy.
This paper concerns the set $\hat{\mathcal{M}}$ of pseudo-Anosovs which occur as monodromies of fibrations on manifolds obtained from the magic 3-manifold $N$ by Dehn filling three cusps with a mild restriction. We prove that for each $g$ (resp. $g \not\equiv 0 \pmod{6}$), the minimum among dilatations of elements (resp. elements with orientable invariant foliations) of $\hat{\mathcal{M}}$ defined on a closed surface $\varSigma_g$ of genus $g$ is achieved by the monodromy of some $\varSigma_g$-bundle over the circle obtained from $N(\tfrac{3}{-2})$ or $N(\tfrac{1}{-2})$ by Dehn filling two cus…
We show that any pseudo-Anosov map that is a lift of pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism of a nonorientable surface has vanishing SAF invariant. We also provide a criterion to certify that a pseudo-Anosov map is not such a lift.
This note gives a brief survey of the minimum dilatation problem for pseudo-Anosov mapping classes, and the first explicit train track description of an infinite family of pseudo-Anosov mapping classes with orientable stable foliations and the conjectural minimum dilatation for closed surfaces of even genus $g \ge 2$.
Answering a question of Farb-Leininger-Margalit, we give explicit lower bounds for the dilatations of pseudo-Anosov mapping classes lying in the kth term of the Johnson filtration of the mapping class group.
In this paper we study the minimum dilatation pseudo-Anosov mapping classes coming from fibrations over the circle of a single 3-manifold, the mapping torus for the "simplest pseudo-Anosov braid". The dilatations that arise include the minimum dilatations for orientable mapping classes for genus g=2,3,4,5,8 as well as Lanneau and Thiffeault's conjectural minima for orientable mapping classes, when g = 2,4 (mod 6). Our examples also show that the minimum dilatation for orientable mapping classes is strictly greater than the minimum dilatation for non-orientable ones when g = 4,6,8.
This paper describes a family of pseudo-Anosov braids with small dilatation. The smallest dilatations occurring for braids with 3, 4 and 5 strands appear in this family. A pseudo-Anosov braid with 2g+1 strands determines a hyperelliptic mapping class with the same dilatation on a genus-g surface. Penner showed that logarithms of least dilatations of pseudo-Anosov maps on a genus-g surface grow asymptotically with the genus like 1/g, and gave explicit examples of mapping classes with dilatations bounded above by log 11/g. Bauer later improved this bound to log 6/g. The braids in this paper give…
We prove that the dilatation of any pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism on a translation surface that belong to a hyperelliptic component is bounded from below uniformly by sqrt{2}. This is in contrast to Penner's asymptotic. Penner proved that the logarithm of the least dilatation of any pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism on a surface of genus g tends to zero at rate 1/g (as g goes to infinity). We also show that our uniform lower bound sqrt{2} is sharp. More precisely the least dilatation of a pseudo-Anosov on a genus g>1 translation surface in a hyperelliptic component belongs to the interval ]sqrt{2},sqr…
A relation between the dilatation of pseudo-Anosov braids and fixed point theory was studied by Ivanov. In this paper we reveal a new relationship between the above two subjects by showing a formula for the dilatation of pseudo-Anosov braids by means of the representations of braid groups due to B. Jiang and H. Zheng.
We consider the hyperelliptic handlebody group on a closed surface of genus $g$. This is the subgroup of the mapping class group on a closed surface of genus $g$ consisting of isotopy classes of homeomorphisms on the surface that commute with some fixed hyperelliptic involution and that extend to homeomorphisms on the handlebody. We prove that the logarithm of the minimal dilatation (i.e, the minimal entropy) of all pseudo-Anosov elements in the hyperelliptic handlebody group of genus $g$ is comparable to $1/g$. This means that the asymptotic behavior of the minimal pseudo-Anosov dilatation of…
Let $S_n$ be a punctured Riemann spheres $\mathbf{S}^2\backslash \{x_1,..., x_n\}$. In this paper, we investigate pseudo-Anosov maps on $S_n$ that are isotopic to the identity on $S_n\cup \{x_n\}$ and have the smallest possible dilatations. We show that those maps cannot be obtained from Thurston's construction (that is the products of two Dehn twists). We also prove that those pseudo-Anosov maps $f$ on $S_n$ with the minimum dilatations can never define a trivial mapping class as any puncture $x_i$ of $S_n$ is filled in. The main tool is to give both lower and upper bounds estimations for dil…
For a pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism $f$ on a closed surface of genus $g\geq 2$, for which the entropy is on the order $\frac{1}{g}$ (the lowest possible order), Farb-Leininger-Margalit showed that the volume of the mapping torus is bounded, independent of $g$. We show that the analogous result fails for a surface of fixed genus $g$ with $n$ punctures, by constructing pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism with entropy of the minimal order $\frac{\log n}{n}$, and volume tending to infinity.
For a surface $S$ with $n$ marked points and fixed genus $g\geq2$, we prove that the logarithm of the minimal dilatation of a pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism of $S$ is on the order of $(\log n)/n$. This is in contrast with the cases of genus zero or one where the order is $1/n$.
It has been known since 1981 that if one fixes an orientable surface $S$ of genus $g$, then there is a real number $λ_{min,g} > 1$ that is the dilatation of a pA diffeomorphism of $S$, and every other pA diffeomorphism of $S$ has dilatation $\geq λ_{min,g}$. We will show how a little-known theorem about digraphs gives some insight into $λ_{min,g}$.
We describe a circle of ideas relating the dynamics of 2-dimensional homeomorphisms to that of 1-dimensional endomorphisms. This is used to introduce a new class of maps generalizing that of Thurston's pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms.
Suppose $S$ is a surface of genus $\ge 2 $, $f: S \to S$ is a surface homeomorphism isotopic to a pseudo-Anosov map $α$ and suppose $\ti S$ is the universal cover of $S$ and $F$ and $A$ are lifts of $f$ and $α$ respectively. We show there is a semiconjugacy $Θ: \ti S \to \bar Ł^s \times \bar Ł^u$ from $F$ to $\bar A$, where $\bar Ł^s$ ($\bar Ł^u$) is the completion of the $R$-tree of leaves of the stable (resp. unstable) foliation for $A$ and $\bar A$ is the map induced by $A$. We also generalize a result of Markovich and show that for any $g \in Homeo(S)$ which commutes with $f$ and has ident…
In this paper we provide a negative answer to a question of Farb about the relation between the algebraic degree of the stretch factor of a pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism and the genus of the surface on which it is defined.
We study the minimal dilatation of pseudo-Anosov pure surface braids and provide upper and lower bounds as a function of genus and the number of punctures. For a fixed number of punctures, these bounds tend to infinity as the genus does. We also bound the dilatation of pseudo-Anosov pure surface braids away from zero and give a constant upper bound in the case of a sufficient number of punctures.
For any nonorientable closed surface, we determine the minimal dilatation among pseudo-Anosov mapping classes arising from Penner's construction. We deduce that the sequence of minimal Penner dilatations has exactly two accumulation points, in contrast to the case of orientable surfaces where there is only one accumulation point. One of our key techniques is representing pseudo-Anosov dilatations as roots of Alexander polynomials of fibred links and comparing dilatations using the skein relation for Alexander polynomials.
We construct sequences of pseudo-Anosov mapping classes whose dilatations behave asymptotically like the inverse of the Euler characteristic of the surface they are defined on. These sequences are used to show that if the genus, g, and punctures, n, of a surface are related by a rational ray g=rn then the minimal dilatations behave asymptotically like the inverse of the Euler characteristic.
Let $δ_g$ be the minimal dilatation for pseudo-Anosovs on a closed surface $Σ_g$ of genus $g$ and let $δ_g^+$ be the minimal dilatation for pseudo-Anosovs on $Σ_g$ with orientable invariant foliations. This paper concerns the pseudo-Anosovs which occur as the monodromies on closed fibers for Dehn fillings of $N(r)$ for each $r \in \{-3/2, -1/2, 2\}$ of the magic manifold $N$. The manifold $N(-3/2)$ is homeomorphic to the Whitehead sister link exterior. We consider the set $Λ_g(r)$ (resp. $Λ_g^+(r)$) which consists of the dilatations of all monodromies (resp. monodromies having orientable invar…
We investigate a phenomenon observed by W. Thurston wherein one constructs a pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism on the limit set of a certain lift of a piecewise-linear expanding interval map. We reconcile this construction with a special subclass of generalized pseudo-Anosovs, first defined by de Carvalho. From there we classify the circumstances under which this construction produces a pseudo-Anosov. As an application, we produce for each $g \geq 1$ a pseudo-Anosov $ϕ_g$ on the surface of genus $g$ that preserves an algebraically primitive translation structure and whose dilatation $λ_g$ is a Salem…
We show that an orientable pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism has vanishing Sah-Arnoux-Fathi invariant if and only if the minimal polynomial of its dilatation is not reciprocal. We relate this to works of Margalit-Spallone and Birman, Brinkmann and Kawamuro. Mainly, we use Veech's construction of pseudo-Anosov maps to give explicit pseudo-Anosov maps of vanishing Sah-Arnoux-Fathi invariant. In particular, we give new infinite families of such maps in genus 3.
For each pseudo-Anosov map $ϕ$ on surface $S$, we will associate it with a $\mathbb{Q}$-submodule of $\mathbb{R}$, denoted by $A(S,ϕ)$. $A(S,ϕ)$ is defined by an interaction between the Thurston norm and dilatation of pseudo-Anosov maps. We will develop a few nice properties of $A(S,ϕ)$ and give a few examples to show that $A(S,ϕ)$ is a nontrivial invariant. These nontrivial examples give an answer to a question asked by McMullen: the minimal point of the restriction of the dilatation function on fibered face need not be a rational point.
Let Gamma_k be the lower central series of a surface group Gamma of a compact surface S with one boundary component. A simple question to ponder is whether a mapping class of S can be determined to be pseudo-Anosov given only the data of its action on Gamma/Gamma_k for some k. In this paper, to each mapping class f which acts trivially on Gamma/Gamma_{k+1}, we associate an invariant Psi_k(f) in End(H_1(S, Z)) which is constructed from its action on Gamma/Gamma_{k+2} . We show that if the characteristic polynomial of Psi_k(f) is irreducible over Z, then f must be pseudo-Anosov. Some explicit ma…
We show that the Liechti-Strenner's example for the closed nonorientable surface in \cite{LiechtiStrenner18} minimizes the dilatation within the class of pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms with an orientable invariant foliation and all but the first coefficient of the characteristic polynomial of the action induced on the first cohomology nonpositive. We also show that the Liechti-Strenner's example of orientation-reversing homeomorphism for the closed orientable surface in \cite{LiechtiStrenner18} minimizes the dilatation within the class of pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms with an orientable invariant…
We prove a new lower bound for the dilatation of an arbitrary pseudo-Anosov map on a surface of genus g with n punctures. Our bound improves the former super-exponential dependence on the genus by a polynomial dependence.
We find the minimum dilatation of pseudo-Anosov braids on n-punctured discs for 3 <= n <= 8. This covers the results of Song-Ko-Los (n=4) and Ham-Song (n=5). The proof is elementary, and uses the Lefschetz formula.
An infinite family of generalized pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms of the sphere S is constructed, and their invariant foliations and singular orbits are described explicitly by means of generalized train tracks. The complex strucure induced by the invariant foliations is described, and is shown to make S into a complex sphere. The generalized pseudo-Anosovs thus become quasiconformal automorphisms of the Riemann sphere, providing a complexification of the unimodal family which differs from that of the Fatou/Julia theory.
There are two objects naturally associated with a braid $β\in B_n$ of pseudo-Anosov type: a (relative) pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism $φ_β\colon S^2\to S^2$; and the finite volume complete hyperbolic structure on the 3-manifold $M_β$ obtained by excising the braid closure of $β$, together with its braid axis, from $S^3$. We show the disconnect between these objects, by exhibiting a family of braids $\{β_q:q\in{\mathbb{Q}}\cap(0,1/3]\}$ with the properties that: on the one hand, there is a fixed homeomorphism $φ_0\colon S^2\to S^2$ to which the (suitably normalized) homeomorphisms $φ_{β_{q}}$ conv…
We study the magic manifold $N$ which is a hyperbolic and fibered $3$-manifold. We give an explicit construction of a fiber $F_a$ and its monodromy $:F_a \rightarrow F_a$ of the fibration associated to each fibered class $a$ of $N$. Let $δ_g$ (resp. $δ_g^+$) be the minimal dilatation of pseudo-Anosovs (resp. pseudo-Anosovs with orientable invariant foliations) defined on an orientable closed surface of genus $g$. As a consequence of our result, we obtain the first explicit construction of the following pseudo-Anosovs; a minimizer of $δ_7^+$ and conjectural minimizers of $δ_g$ for large $g$.
Bestvina and Handel have found an effective algorithm that determines whether a given homeomorphism of an orientable, possibly punctured surface is pseudo-Anosov. We present a software package in Java that realizes this algorithm for surfaces with one puncture. Moreover, the package allows the user to define homeomorphisms in terms of Dehn twists, and in the pseudo-Anosov case it generates images of train tracks in the sense of Bestvina-Handel.
