Dimension theory and Fuchsian groups (Q1431634)

The authors review some notions of dimension theory in dynamical systems and give some applications for growth rates of Fuchsian groups. In particular, they study the level sets of a function on the limit set of the Fuchsian group, that we describe next. Given \(x\) a point of the limit set, we consider a sequence of elements \(g_n\) of the Fuchsian group such that the orbits \(g_n0\) of the origin \(0\) in the Poincaré disc aproximate \(x\): \(g_n0\to x\). The function is defined as the limit of the quotient between the hyperbolic distance \(d(0,g_n0)\) and the world length \(| g_n| \) of the group elements. Only Fuchsian groups with the following property are considered: for every \(x\) in the limit set one can assign a unique reduced sequence in the generators of the group; this includes groups freely generated by side parings of infinite volume polygons (with exterior vertices) and \(SL_2(Z)\). \textit{C. Series} [Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 6, 601--625 (1986; Zbl 0593.58033)] introduced the so-called boundary maps \(f\! : \partial H^2\to\partial H^2\), which in this case are conjugate to the Bernoulli shifts via the conjugation between the symbolic space with the generating set and the limit set. The main result of the paper is a variational formula for the topological entropy of \(f\) on the above level sets. The authors notice the similarities with the paper of \textit{M. Kesseböhmer} and \textit{B. O. Stratmann} [Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 24, 141--170 (2004; Zbl 1115.37024)], specially in the level sets, though they point out the differences between both papers.