A note on the periods of surface homeomorphisms (Q1310395)

Let \(M\) be a compact connected oriented surface (possibly with boundary) and let \(F : M \to M\) be a pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism (which means that there is a real number \(\lambda = \lambda(F) > 1\) and a pair of transverse measured foliations \(\mathbb{F}^ s\) and \(\mathbb{F}^ u\) such that \(F(\mathbb{F}^ s) = \lambda^{-1} \mathbb{F}^ s\) and \(F(\mathbb{F}^ u) = \lambda \mathbb{F}^ u\). Such homeomorphism \(F\) is topologically transitive, has positive entropy and has Markov partition (see the papers by \textit{A. Fathi, F. Laudenbach} and \textit{V. Poenaru} in Astérisque 66-67 (1979)) and is semi-conjugate to the subshift of finite type \((\Sigma_ k, A, \sigma)\) where \(A = A(F)\) is the \(k \times k\) transition matrix. The authors prove that if \(f : M \to M\) is a homeomorphism isotopic to the pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism \(F\) and \(\mu\) is a real number such that \(2 < \mu < \lambda\) if \(\lambda > 2\) and \(1 < \mu < \lambda\) if \(\lambda < 2\), then: (1) there is a positive integer \(n_ 0\) such that: \(\text{trace}(A^{n + 1})/\text{trace}(A^ n) > \mu\) for \(n \geq n_ 0\), (2) if \(\mu > 2\) then \(f\) has periodic points of all periods greater than or equal to \(2n_ 0\), with (perhaps) the exception of finitely many, (3) if \(\mu < 2\) then \(f\) has periodic points of all periods greater than or equal to \(\max(2n_ 0, 4(1 + | \log(\mu-1)/ \log \mu|))\) with (perhaps) the exception of finitely many. As a corollary the authors get the following statement: If \(f\) is a surface homeomorphism isotopic to a pseudo-Anosov one, then its set of periods is cofinite, that is there exists a finite subset \(S\) of \(\mathbb{N}\) such that the set of periods of \(f\) is equal to \(\mathbb{N} \setminus S\).