Invariant trace fields of once-punctured torus bundles (Q2386866)

The author considers hyperbolic once-punctured torus bundles with fundamental groups generated by two elements. The main result is that there exist bundles with invariant trace field of arbitrarily large degree. Subsequently, this result is shown to have interesting number-theoretical implications. Namely, it gives the following partial answer to a question raised by \textit{B. H. Bowditch} concerning which subgroups of PSL\(_2 ({\mathbb Z})\) can stabilise an element of \(\Phi:= \{(a,b,c) \in {\mathbb C} \mid a^2 +b^2 +c^2 = abc\}\) [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 77, No. 3, 697--736 (1998; Zbl 0928.11030)]. Only \((0,0,0)\) has stabiliser PSL\(_2 ({\mathbb Z})\) and this is the only element of \(\Phi\) with a finite orbit under PSL\(_2 ({\mathbb Z})\). Moreover, there exist elements \((a,b,c) \in \Phi \setminus (0,0,0)\) whose stabilisers contain non-abelian free groups.