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This is a paper written by Series "THE MODULAR SURFACE AND CONTINUED FRACTIONS".

I want to know about above construction natural invariant measure $\mu$ for the geodesic flow on $T_{1}M$ where M is the modular surface. Moreover, I want to know this coordinatization following measure. [6] is an article by E. Hopf, 'Ergodentheorie', Abh. Sächs. Akad. Wiss. Leipzig, 91 (1939), but the construction of this measure does not seem to go into much detail. If anyone knows more about it, I'd like to know how to construct it and whether the product measure is an invariant measure.

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  • $\begingroup$ Which product measure are you referring to? Are you referring to the product of the Peterson measures over the (products) of the boundary? $\endgroup$
    – Asaf
    Commented Sep 6, 2023 at 3:05

1 Answer 1

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$\newcommand{\diff}{\mathrm{d}}$This is a heavily edited version of my (a bit right, but mostly wrong) previous answer. I think that this is now correct (even got the signs right!).


$\newcommand{\HH}{\mathbb{H}}$Let $L = L_{\alpha, \beta}$ be the semicircle in $\HH$ (the upper-half plane) which is perpendicular to the real axis and which has end points at $\alpha$ and $\beta$. Breaking the symmetry of the situation, we assume that $\alpha < \beta$. We find that the centre of $L$ is $c = \frac{1}{2}(\alpha + \beta)$ and the radius of $L$ is $r = \frac{1}{2}(- \alpha + \beta)$. For later use we take $a = c + ir$ to be the apex (highest point) of $L$.

Note that $\diff c = \frac{1}{2}(\diff\alpha + \diff\beta)$ and $\diff r = \frac{1}{2}(-\diff\alpha + \diff\beta)$. Thus $\diff c\,\diff r = \frac{1}{4} \diff\alpha\, \diff\beta$. We deduce that: $$\frac {\diff c\, \diff r}{r^2} = \frac{1}{4} \frac{\diff\alpha\, \diff\beta}{((\alpha - \beta)/2)^2} = \frac{\diff\alpha\, \diff\beta}{(\alpha - \beta)^2}$$

Suppose now that $v$ is an element of $T_1 \HH$ - that is, a unit tangent vector in the upper half plane. Suppose that $v$ is tangent to the semicircle $L = L_{\alpha, \beta}$. Suppose that the basepoint $(x, y)$ of $v$ is (signed) hyperbolic distance $t$ from $a$, the apex of $L$. Finally, suppose that $v$ makes angle $\theta$ with the horizontal line through $(x, y)$. It is now an exercise to show the following: $$\sin(\theta) = \tanh(t)$$ (Hint: Draw a picture.) Being careful with signs, we compute the following: $$ \begin{align*} x &= c - r \sin(\theta) \\ y &= r \cos(\theta) \end{align*} $$ Thus: $$ \begin{align*} \diff x &= \diff c - \sin(\theta)\,\diff r - r \cos(\theta)\,\diff \theta \\ \diff y &= \cos(\theta)\,\diff r - r \sin(\theta)\,\diff \theta \\ \diff \theta &= \cos(\theta)\,\diff t \end{align*} $$ We substitute to remove $\diff \theta$ from the right-hand side and obtain: $$ \begin{align*} \diff x &= \diff c - \sin(\theta)\,\diff r - r \cos^2(\theta)\,\diff t \\ \diff y &= \cos(\theta)\,\diff r - r \sin(\theta) \cos(\theta)\,\diff t \\ \diff \theta &= \cos(\theta)\,\diff t \end{align*} $$ Thus we have: $$ \diff x\,\diff y\,\diff \theta = \cos^2(\theta)\,\diff c\,\diff r\,\diff t $$ Since $y = r \cos(\theta)$, we finally deduce that the two measures given by Series are equal.

Now, suppose that $\phi_s \colon T_1 \HH \to T_1 \HH$ is the time $s$ geodesic flow. This takes $v$ to $\phi_s(v)$, the tangent vector with coordinates $(\alpha, \beta, t + s)$. (That is, $\phi_s(v)$ is again tangent to $L = L_{\alpha, \beta}$ but now has signed distance $t + s$ from the apex.) Thus $\phi_s^*(\diff\alpha) = \diff\alpha$, $\phi_s^*(\diff\beta) = \diff\beta$, and $\phi_s^*(\diff t) = \diff t$, as desired.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for useful your comment. I understood that this is a coordinate transformation. I'm curious whether the product measure is an invariant measure. $\endgroup$
    – user473085
    Commented Aug 31, 2023 at 5:23
  • $\begingroup$ I've corrected my previous answer - there I got the coordinate transform to $(c, r)$ coordinates right, but I somehow thought that $(c, r) = (x, y)$, which of course is wrong. I've added a discussion of invariance under the geodesic flow at the end. If that is your main question, you might edit the original post to make that clear? $\endgroup$
    – Sam Nead
    Commented Aug 31, 2023 at 10:03
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you. I'll edit the post. $\endgroup$
    – user473085
    Commented Sep 6, 2023 at 0:04
  • $\begingroup$ Oh, and if my answer in fact answers your question (see the last paragraph) you should “accept” it by checking the tick mark. $\endgroup$
    – Sam Nead
    Commented Sep 6, 2023 at 5:55

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