The horocycle flow and the Laplacian on hyperbolic surfaces of infinite genus (Q2379369)

Let \(\mathbb{D}\) denote the Poincaré disc, and let \(\Gamma\) be a torsion-free Fuchsian group which is weakly tame. The latter means that the hyperbolic surface \(\Gamma\backslash\mathbb{D}\) admits a decomposition into a countable family of pairs of pants which meet at boundary components of the same length such that each geodesic is either trapped in a union of two adjacent pairs of pants or crosses infinitely many pants components with norm bounded from above. Such a group is of the first kind. An infinite ergodic Radon measure on the unit tangent bundle \(T^1(\Gamma\backslash\mathbb{D})\) of \(\Gamma\backslash\mathbb{D}\) which is invariant under the horocycle flow is called trivial if it is supported on a single horocycle. The author shows that the non-trivial infinite ergodic horocycle invariant Radon measures on \(T^1(\Gamma\backslash\mathbb{D})\) are in bijection with the non-trivial positive minimal eigenfunctions of the Laplace-Beltrami operator on \(\Gamma\backslash\mathbb{D}\), via their representation as measures on the boundary of \(\mathbb{D}\). The key tool is a holonomy lemma for tame surfaces. The holonomy lemma implies that any of these Radon measures is quasi-invariant under the geodesic flow. From this the bijection above follows. Moreover, the proof of the quasi-invariance implies that it does not hold for all Fuchsian groups of the first kind.