Genericity of pseudo-Anosov mapping classes, when seen as mapping classes (Q2070053)

The Nielsen-Thurston classification of mapping classes implies that every mapping class is either of finite order, or reducible or pseudo-Anosov. In the last case, the dynamics of the mapping class is hyperbolic, as there are a pair of transverse measured foliations respectively expanded and contracted by the mapping class. This is a generalization of the classification of matrices in \(\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb Z)\), which are either of finite order, or reducible, or hyperbolic. It has long been folklore that the pseudo-Anosov mapping classes are the most abundant, that is, that a ``generic mapping class is pseudo-Anosov''. Of course, this statement can be interpreted in many ways. \textit{J. Maher} [Duke Math. J. 156, No. 3, 429--468 (2011; Zbl 1213.37072)] showed that a natural random walk on the mapping class group lands on pseudo-Anosov with probability going to one as the number of steps grows. The question is often asked in terms of the likelihood that a random element in a ball of given radius in the word metric is pseudo-Anosov. The authors of this paper argue that this is not a very natural notion, and think about genericity in terms of other, more naturally geometric, notions of size in the mapping class group, which enable them to use the machinery of certain counting problems on spaces of currents to give positive answers to genericity of pseudo-Anosovs in these situations.