English

Immersed surfaces in the modular orbifold

Geometric Topology 2020-06-04 v2 Group Theory

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.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1003.1532,
  title  = {Immersed surfaces in the modular orbifold},
  author = {Danny Calegari and Joel Louwsma},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1003.1532},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

13 pages, 8 figures; version 2 contains minor corrections

R2 v1 2026-06-21T14:54:50.953Z