Finiteness results for flat surfaces: large cusps and short geodesics (Q2269703)

The paper under review deals with translation surfaces (resp. half-translation surfaces), and more precisely with the Veech groups associated to them (called in this way after [\textit{W. A. Veech}, Invent. Math. 97, No.~3, 553--583 (1989; Zbl 0676.32006)]). Such groups are discrete subgroups of SL(2,\(\mathbb{R}\)) (resp. PSL(2,\(\mathbb{R}\))), and some of them are non-arithmetic lattices. From the text: `` A fundamental question in this regard is to understand the commensurability classes of Fuchsian groups which contain Veech groups (recall that a \textit{Fuchsian group} is a discrete subgroup of \(G\) and two of such groups are \textit{commensurable} if their intersection is of finite index in both). We will describe some restrictions on groups commensurable to a Veech group \(\Gamma\) and on the geometry of the corresponding \(\mathbb{H}/\Gamma\). \([\ldots]\) It is clear that if \(\Gamma\) is a lattice, there is an upper limit on the radius of a maximal embedded disk. We have the following converse, which provides a new characterization of lattice surfaces. \textbf{Theorem 1.1} If \(\Gamma\) is commensurable to a Veech group and is not a lattice then for every \(R\), \(\mathbb{H}/\Gamma\) contains an embedded disk of radius \(R\). We derive a purely group-theoretic property of Veech groups: \textbf{Theorem 1.2} A non-elementary Fuchsian group commensurable to a Veech group is of finite index in its normalizer. These theorems follow from some finiteness results which involve an upper bound on either the covolume of a cusp for \(\Gamma_M\), or the eigenvalue of a hyperbolic element in \(\Gamma_M\). '' The paper is well-written, in particular all the notions used in the paper are shortly but efficiently reminded.