Connected components of the strata of the moduli spaces of quadratic differentials

In two fundamental classical papers, Masur and Veech have independently proved that the Teichmueller geodesic flow acts ergodically on each connected component of each stratum of the moduli space of quadratic differentials. It is therefore interesting to have a classification of the ergodic components. Veech has proved that these strata are not necessarily connected. In a recent work, Kontsevich and Zorich have completely classified the components in the particular case where the quadratic differentials are given by the global square of Abelian differentials. Here we are interested in the complementary case. In a previous paper, we have described some particular component, namely the hyperelliptic connected components, and showed that some strata are non-connected. In this paper, we give the general classification theorem: up to four exceptional cases in low genera, the strata of meromorphic quadratic differentials are either connected, or have exactly two connected components. In this last case, one component is hyperelliptic, the other not. Our proof is based on a new approach of the so-called Jenkins-Strebel differential. We will present and use the notion of generalized permutations.Comment: 49 pages, 12 figures, submitted. major revision, typos correcte

Hyperelliptic Components of the Moduli Spaces of Quadratic Differentials with Prescribed Singularities

Moduli spaces of quadratic differentials with prescribed singularities are not necessarily connected. We describe here all cases when they have a special hyperelliptic connected component. We announce the general classification theorem: up to the four exceptional cases in low genera the strata of meromorphic quadratic differentials are either connected, or have exactly two connected components, and one of the two components is hyperelliptic.Comment: references added. 23 pages, 5 figure

Parity of the spin structure defined by a quadratic differential

According to the work of Kontsevich-Zorich, the invariant that classifies non-hyperelliptic connected components of the moduli spaces of Abelian differentials with prescribed singularities,is the parity of the spin structure. We show that for the moduli space of quadratic differentials, the spin structure is constant on every stratum where it is defined. In particular this disproves the conjecture that it classifies the non-hyperelliptic connected components of the strata of quadratic differentials with prescribed singularities. An explicit formula for the parity of the spin structure is given.Comment: Published by Geometry and Topology at http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/gt/GTVol8/paper12.abs.htm

Veech groups without parabolic elements

We prove that a ``bouillabaisse'' surface (translation surface which has two transverse parabolic elements) has totally real trace field. As a corollary, non trivial Veech groups which have no parabolic elements do exist. The proof follows Veech's viewpoint on Thurston's construction of pseudo-Anosov diffeomorphisms.Comment: 7 pages, Corrected typos, to appear in Duke Mathematical Journa

Dynamics and geometry of the Rauzy-Veech induction for quadratic differentials

Interval exchange maps are related to geodesic flows on translation surfaces; they correspond to the first return maps of the vertical flow on a transverse segment. The Rauzy-Veech induction on the space of interval exchange maps provides a powerful tool to analyze the Teichmueller geodesic flow on the moduli space of Abelian differentials. Several major results have been proved using this renormalization. Danthony and Nogueira introduced in 1988 a natural generalization of interval exchange transformations, namely the linear involutions. These maps are related to general measured foliations on surfaces (orientable or not). In this paper we are interested by such maps related to geodesic flow on (orientable) flat surfaces with Z/2Z linear holonomy. We relate geometry and dynamics of such maps to the combinatorics of generalized permutations. We study an analogue of the Rauzy-Veech induction and give an efficient combinatorial characterization of its attractors. We establish a natural bijection between the extended Rauzy classes of generalized permutations and connected components of the strata of meromorphic quadratic differentials with at most simple poles, which allows, in particular, to classify the connected components of all exceptional strata.Comment: 50 pages, 16 figures. References added, minor corrections. Paper submitte

Complete periodicity of Prym eigenforms

This paper deals with Prym eigenforms which are introduced previously by McMullen. We prove several results on the directional flow on those surfaces, related to complete periodicity (introduced by Calta). More precisely we show that any homological direction is algebraically periodic, and any direction of a regular closed geodesic is a completely periodic direction. As a consequence we draw that the limit set of the Veech group of every Prym eigenform in some Prym loci of genus 3,4, and 5 is either empty, one point, or the full circle at infinity. We also construct new examples of translation surfaces satisfying the topological Veech dichotomy. As a corollary we obtain new translation surfaces whose Veech group is infinitely generated and of the first kind.Comment: 35 page

On the minimum dilatation of braids on punctured discs

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.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX with amsart style. Mathematica source code included