On the ergodicity of flat surfaces of finite area (Q2453454)

This paper presents an elegant sufficient condition for ergodicity of the straight line flow on a translation surface of finite area (but possibly infinite type) in terms of the evolution of the surface under the renormalization dynamics of the Teichmüller geodesic flow. Let \((S, \alpha)\) be a translation surface of finite area, and let \((S_t, \alpha_t)\) denote its evolution under the Teichmüller geodesic flow, which is obtained by stretching the surface by \(e^t\) horizontally and contracting by \(e^{-t}\) vertically. Masur showed in the case of finite-type surfaces, that if the systole \(\delta_t\) of \((S_t, \alpha_t)\) (i.e., the length of the shortest homotopically non-trivial curve on \((S_t, \alpha_t)\)) is bounded below along a sequence of times \(t_n \rightarrow \infty)\), then the vertical flow on \((S, \alpha)\) is uniquely ergodic. Theorem 2 of the paper, the main result, states a similar non-divergence criterion for ergodicity in the general setting of finite area surfaces. Namely, let \(\mathrm{SL}(S, \alpha)\) denote the stabilizer of the surface under the linear action of \(\mathrm{SL}(2, \mathbb R)\) on the moduli space of translation surfaces. Then if the trajectory \((S_t, \alpha_t)\) does not leave every compact set of \(\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb R)/\mathrm{SL}(S, \alpha)\), the vertical flow on \((S, \alpha)\) is ergodic. In Theorem 3, a striking generalization of Masur's criterion for unique ergodicity is presented: Suppose \((S, \alpha)\) is compact, and \[ \int_{0}^{\infty} \delta_t^2 dt = \infty. \] Then the vertical flow on \((S, \alpha)\) is uniquely ergodic.