Normalized entropy versus volume for pseudo-Anosovs (Q1746394)

Let \(\Sigma\) be an orientable surface of finite type, and \(\varphi\) a pseudo-Anosov automorphism of \(\Sigma\). By Thurston's hyperbolization, its mapping torus \(N_\varphi\) is a hyperbolic manifold. The main theorem of this paper is the inequality \[ \mathrm{ent}(\varphi)\geq \frac{1}{3\pi|\chi(\Sigma)|}\mathrm{vol} N_\varphi, \] where \( \chi(\Sigma)\) denotes the Euler characteristic of the surface and \(\mathrm{ent}(\varphi)\) the entropy of \(\varphi\) (namely, the minimum of the topological entropy of any automorphism isotopic to \(\varphi\)). As mentioned in the paper, the quantity \(2\pi|\chi(\Sigma)| \mathrm{ent}(\varphi)\) is often refered to as normalized entropy; thus the main theorem asserts that the normalized entropy of \(\varphi\) is bounded below by two thirds of the volume of its mapping torus. Let me mention just one of the corollaries. Since the volume of hyperbolic three-manifolds is bounded below by an explicit constant, the entropy of a pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism is bounded below by an explicit constant times \( 1/|\chi(\Sigma)| \). A bound of the quotient \(\mathrm{ent}(\varphi)/\mathrm{vol} N_\varphi\) by a constant depending only of the topology of \(\Sigma\) was already obtained by \textit{E. Kin} et al. [Exp. Math. 18, No. 4, 397--407 (2009; Zbl 1181.37061)], but the constant was not explicit. The proof uses the double limit theorem of Thurston. Namely, given a marked Riemann surface \(X\) in the Teichmüller space of \(\Sigma\), the sequence of quasi-Fuchsian manifolds \(\mathrm{QF}(\varphi^{-n}X,\varphi^{n}X)\) converges to the cyclic branched covering of \(N_\varphi\), as \(n\to\infty\). The renormalized volume of Krasnov and Schlenker is used to bound the volume \[ \mathrm{vol}\, \mathrm{C}(\varphi^{-n}X,\varphi^{n}X) \leq 3\pi|\chi(\Sigma)| \, d_T(\varphi^{-n}X,\varphi^{n}X) + D \] where \( \mathrm{C}(\varphi^{-n}X,\varphi^{n}X) \) denotes the convex or Nielsen core of the quasi-Fuchsian manifold \(\mathrm{QF}(\varphi^{-n}X,\varphi^{n}X)\), and \(d_T\) denotes the Teichmüller distance. By a result of Bers, \( d_T(\varphi^{-n}X,\varphi^{n}X)/2n\) converges to the entropy of \(\varphi\). Thus the authors prove that \( \mathrm{vol}\, \mathrm{C}(\varphi^{-n}X,\varphi^{n}X)/2n\) converges to the volume of \(N_\varphi\). This latter limit is proved in an appendix, by using ideas related to geometric inflexibility of McMullen and Brock and Bromberg. The paper is very nice, not only the result is remarkable, but it is very clear and well written. It describes properly the context and the proof is well structured, focusing on the key points.