Generalized Markoff maps and McShane's identity (Q2463529)

Let \(T\) be a torus with a disk removed. In his PhD. Thesis at Warwick, G. McShane showed that the sum of \(1/(1 + e^{l(\gamma)})\), where \(\gamma\) ranges over all simple closed geodesics on \(T\) and \(l(\gamma)\) is the hyperbolic length of \(\gamma\), is equal to \(1/2\). This result was reproved by \textit{B. Bowditch} using different methods in [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 77, No.~3, 697--736 (1998; Zbl 0928.11030)]; Bowditch also extended the result to type-preserving representations of the once-punctured torus group into \(SL(2,\mathbb C)\) satisfying certain trace conditions referred to here as the ``Bowditch Q-conditions''. Generalizations to hyperbolic once-punctured torus bundles and to hyperbolic punctured surface bundles by Bowditch in the first case and Sakuma and separately Akiyoshi, Miyachi, and Sakuma in the second case followed in [\textit{B. Bowditch}, Topology 36, No.~2, 325--334 (1997; Zbl 0872.57015); \textit{M. Sakuma}, RIMS Kokyuroku 1104, 103--108 (1999; Zbl 0951.57500); \textit{H. Akiyoshi, H. Miyachi} and \textit{M. Sakuma}, Contemporary Mathematics 355, 21--40 (2004; Zbl 1080.30038), and London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series 329, 151--185 (2006; Zbl 1103.30027)], respectively. The authors of the paper reviewed here also generalized the identities to a one-hole/one-cone torus setting in [J. Differ. Geom. 72, No.~1, 73--112 (2006; Zbl 1097.53031)]. In the paper reviewed here, the authors show that their generalizations from this last paper hold for characters which satisfy the Bowditch Q-conditions in the relative character variety \(X_{\tau}\) of \(T\) consisting of characters \(\rho\) such that \(\operatorname{tr} \rho(aba^{-1}b^{-1})\) is equal to a fixed value \(\tau\). They show that the mapping class group acts properly discontinuously on the set of characters in \(\chi_{\tau}\) which satisfy the Bowditch Q-conditions, and that this set is open and is the largest open set on which the mapping class group acts properly discontinuously. Finally they show that the McShane-Bowditch identity which Bowditch established for hyperbolic once-punctured torus bundles leads to similar results for the closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds obtained from Dehn filling if certain relative Bowditch Q-conditions are satisfied.