The Nielsen-Thurston classification of mapping classes is determined by TQFT (Q1012026)

Suppose \(\Sigma\) is a closed oriented surface of genus \(g\geq 2\) and let \(\Gamma\) be the mapping class group of \(\Sigma\). According to the Nielsen-Thurston classification, any mapping class \(\phi\in\Gamma\) is either of finite order, or of infinite order but reducible, otherwise it is Pseudo-Anosov. The main purpose of the paper is to find explicit conditions which determine which Nielsen-Thurston type a given \(\phi\in\Gamma\) belongs to. These conditions are formulated in terms of quantum \(SU(n)\) projective representations \(\rho_k\) of \(\Gamma\) at level \(k\) with twist \(d\) and Toeplitz operators \(T_f^{(k)}\in C^\infty(\mathcal{T}, \text{End}(\mathcal{H}^{(k)}))\), \(f\in C^\infty(M^{(d)})\), (for a detailed description see [\textit{J. E. Andersen}, Commun. Math. Phys. 255, No.~3, 727--745 (2005; Zbl 1079.53136) and Ann. Math. (2) 163, No.~1, 347--368 (2006; Zbl 1157.53049)]). Here \(M^{(d)}\) is the moduli space of flat \(SU(n)\)-connections on \(\Sigma-p\) (\(p\) is a fixed point on \(\Sigma\)) with holonomy \(d\in \mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}\cong \mathbb{Z}_{SU(n)}\) around \(p\) and \(\mathcal{H}^{(k)}\) is a vector bundle over corresponding Teichmüller space \(\mathcal{T}\) obtained by geometric quantization at level \(k\) applied to \(M^{(d)}\). The main result is Theorem~4. It states that for any \(\phi\in\Gamma\) and any homotopy class \(\gamma\) of a simple curve on \(\Sigma\) we have that \(\phi\) is reducible along \(\gamma\), i.~e. \(\phi(\gamma)=\gamma\) if and only if \(\lim_{k\to\infty}\|[\rho_k(\phi),T^{(k)}_{h_\gamma}]\|=0\). Here \(h_\gamma\) is the holonomy function, defined on \(M^{(d)}\) and associated to \(\gamma\), which is the trace of the holonomy around \(\gamma\). In the last section the author formulates the results of the paper in terms of the BHMV skein model.