Arithmetic of curves on moduli of local systems (Q2219877)

Let \(\Sigma\) be a smooth compact oriented surface of genus \(g\) with \(n\) boundary curves satisfying \(3g + n - 3 > 0\). Let \(X_k\) be the coarse moduli space of \(\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{C})\)-local systems on \(\Sigma\) with prescribed boundary traces \(k\in \mathbb{A}^n(\mathbb{C})\). The mapping class group \(\Gamma\) of the surface acts on \(X_k\) via pullback of local systems. In this paper, the interplay between the dynamics of this action and the Diophantine geometry of algebraic curves on \(X_k\) is studied. A subvariety of \(X_k\) is called a multitwist if it is given by a product of commuting Dehn twists (and their powers) along simple closed curves on \(\Sigma\), which cannot be continuously deformed into a point or a boundary curve on \(\Sigma\), in a pants decomposition of \(\Sigma\). Let \(C \subset X_k\) be a geometrically irreducible algebraic curve over \(\mathbb{Z}\) that is not the mapping class group of \(\Sigma\). It is proved that \(C(\mathbb{Z})\) can be effectively determined, and \(C(\mathbb{Z})\) is finite, or C is the image of an irreducible algebraic curve of genus 0 with two punctures preserved by a nontrivial multitwist, under which \(C(\mathbb{Z})\) consists of finitely many orbits. Furthermore, if \(C\) is not fixed pointwise by any nontrivial multitwist, the same result holds with \(C(\mathbb{Z})\) replaced by the set of all imaginary quadratic integral points on \(C\). As an application of this result, it is obtained that on an affine algebraic surface with an equation of the form \(x^2 + y^2 + z^2 + x yz =ax + by + cz + d\), the integral solutions to any Diophantine equation over \(\mathbb{Z}\) can be effectively determined.