Knot theory of R-covered Anosov flows: homotopy versus isotopy of closed orbits

In this article, we study the knots realized by periodic orbits of R-covered Anosov flows in compact 3-manifolds. We show that if two orbits are freely homotopic then in fact they are isotopic. We show that lifts of periodic orbits to the universal cover are unknotted. When the manifold is atoroidal, we deduce some finer properties regarding the existence of embedded cylinders connecting two given homotopic orbits.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figure

Pseudo-Anosov flows in toroidal manifolds

We first prove rigidity results for pseudo-Anosov flows in prototypes of toroidal 3-manifolds: we show that a pseudo-Anosov flow in a Seifert fibered manifold is up to finite covers topologically equivalent to a geodesic flow and we show that a pseudo-Anosov flow in a solv manifold is topologically equivalent to a suspension Anosov flow. Then we study the interaction of a general pseudo-Anosov flow with possible Seifert fibered pieces in the torus decomposition: if the fiber is associated with a periodic orbit of the flow, we show that there is a standard and very simple form for the flow in the piece using Birkhoff annuli. This form is strongly connected with the topology of the Seifert piece. We also construct a large new class of examples in many graph manifolds, which is extremely general and flexible. We construct other new classes of examples, some of which are generalized pseudo-Anosov flows which have one prong singularities and which show that the above results in Seifert fibered and solvable manifolds do not apply to one prong pseudo-Anosov flows. Finally we also analyse immersed and embedded incompressible tori in optimal position with respect to a pseudo-Anosov flow.Comment: 44 pages, 4 figures. Version 2. New section 9: questions and comments. Overall revision, some simplified proofs, more explanation

Ideal boundaries of pseudo-Anosov flows and uniform convergence groups, with connections and applications to large scale geometry

Given a general pseudo-Anosov flow in a three manifold, the orbit space of the lifted flow to the universal cover is homeomorphic to an open disk. We compactify this orbit space with an ideal circle boundary. If there are no perfect fits between stable and unstable leaves and the flow is not topologically conjugate to a suspension Anosov flow, we then show: The ideal circle of the orbit space has a natural quotient space which is a sphere and is a dynamical systems ideal boundary for a compactification of the universal cover of the manifold. The main result is that the fundamental group acts on the flow ideal boundary as a uniform convergence group. Using a theorem of Bowditch, this yields a proof that the fundamental group of the manifold is Gromov hyperbolic and it shows that the action of the fundamental group on the flow ideal boundary is conjugate to the action on the Gromov ideal boundary. This implies that pseudo-Anosov flows without perfect fits are quasigeodesic flows and we show that the stable/unstable foliations of these flows are quasi-isometric. Finally we apply these results to foliations: if a foliation is R-covered or with one sided branching in an atoroidal three manifold then the results above imply that the leaves of the foliation in the universal cover extend continuously to the sphere at infinity.Comment: 69 pages. Major revision, more explanations and simplified some simplified proofs. Detailed explanations of scalloped regions, parabolic points and perfect fit horoballs. 22 figures (3 new figures