Characterization of simple closed geodesics on Fricke surfaces (Q1066177)

The author notes that it is possible to enumerate recursively the simple closed geodesics on any Riemann surface of a signature \((0;2,2,2,\infty)\). The same caracterisation is valid on surfaces of types \((1;\infty)\) or \((0;\infty,\infty,\infty,\infty)\), both of which are, by a result of \textit{A. L. Schmidt} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 286/287, 341--368 (1976; Zbl 0332.10015)] covered by a \((0;2,2,2,\infty)\) surface. The key observation is that for the special \((0;2,2,2,\infty)\) surface \(\mathbb{H}/\Gamma^3\), where \(\Gamma^3\) is the group of cubes of elements in \(\mathrm{SL}(2,\(\mathbb{Z})\) and \(\mathbb{H}\) is the hyperbolic plane, a geodesic is simple if and only if its endpoints are Markov quadratic numbers. These can be recursively enumerated by the well-known Markov tree [\textit{J. W. S. Cassels}, An introduction to diophantine approximation. Cambridge: At the University Press (1957; Zbl 0077.04801)]. The proof is in the same spirit as in [\textit{A. Haas}, Diophantine approximation on hyperbolic Riemann surfaces, Acta Math. 156, 33--82 (1986; Zbl 0593.10028)] and [\textit{A. F. Beardon}, \textit{J. Lehner} and the author, Closed geodesics on a Riemann surface with application to the Markov spectrum. Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 295, 635--647 (1986; Zbl 0597.10024)], and relies on considering the possible kinds of self intersections of closed curves on a four times punctured sphere.