English

Counting intersection numbers of closed geodesics on Shimura curves

Number Theory 2025-12-24 v2

Abstract

Let ΓPSL(2,R)\Gamma\subseteq\text{PSL}(2, \mathbb{R}) correspond to the group of units of norm 11 in an Eichler order O\mathrm{O} of an indefinite quaternion algebra over Q\mathbb{Q}. Closed geodesics on Γ\H\Gamma\backslash\mathbb{H} correspond to optimal embeddings of real quadratic orders into O\mathrm{O}. The weighted intersection numbers of pairs of these closed geodesics conjecturally relates to the work of Darmon-Vonk on a real quadratic analogue to the difference of singular moduli. In this paper, we study the total intersection number over all embeddings of a given pair of discriminants. We precisely describe the arithmetic of each intersection, and produce a formula for the total intersection. This formula is a real quadratic analogue of the work of Gross and Zagier on factorizing the difference of singular moduli. The results are fairly general, allowing for a large class of non-maximal Eichler orders, and non-fundamental/non-coprime discriminants. The paper ends with some explicit examples illustrating the results of the paper.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2104.01968,
  title  = {Counting intersection numbers of closed geodesics on Shimura curves},
  author = {James Rickards},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2104.01968},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

45 pages, 1 figure, 11 tables. Minor revisions and corrections. To appear in Research in Number Theory