Nonlinear descent on moduli of local systems (Q2218739)

This paper initiates the author's Diophantine study of modulus spaces for local systems on surfaces and their mapping class group dynamics. The aim of the paper is to establish a structure theorem for the integral points on moduli of special linear rank two local systems over surfaces, using mapping class group descent and boundedness results for systoles of local systems. This paper is organized as follows. Section 1 is an introduction to the subject and summarizes the main results. In Section 2, the author collects relevant background on surfaces and moduli of local systems. Section 3, deals with systoles of local systems. In this section, as a first step towards the main result, the author introduces the notion of systole for \(SL_2\)-local systems, and studies its boundedness properties. In Section 4, the author proves a compactness criterion for local systems, which extends Mumford's compactness criterion [\textit{D. Mumford}, Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 28, 289--294 (1971; Zbl 0215.23202)] on moduli of closed Riemann surfaces as well as a related work of [\textit{B. H. Bowditch} et al., Math. Ann. 302, No. 1, 31--60 (1995; Zbl 0830.57008)]. Section 5, deals with some remarks. Here the author collects further remarks on the main result, briefly visits the theory of arithmetic hyperbolic surfaces and derives elementary observations on the behavior of integral points on the moduli spaces \(X_k\). He gives an alternative proof of the finitude of mapping class group orbits for non degenerate faithful representations in \(X_k(\mathbb{Z})\) for surfaces with boundary.