Dynamics on the infinite staircase (Q379581)

Infinite-area translation surfaces arise in the study of many well-known physical models such as the Lorentz gas and the Ehrenfest wind-tree. In the paper under review, the important example of the \textit{infinite staircase} is considered. This surface is obtained by stacking countably many unit squares in a simple staircase pattern, with appropriate side identifications of parallel sides. The main result of the paper is a description of the ergodic properties of direction flows on this surface. If the slope of the flow is irrational, it is shown that the directional flow is ergodic with respect to the Lebesgue measure, and that the locally finite Borel invariant measures correspond to the \textit{Maharam measures} for the naturally associated skew-product over a rotation. If the slope of the flow is rational with odd numerator and denominator, the surface decomposes into two infinite strips, and if the slope of the flow is rational with either even numerator or denominator, the surface decomposes into infinitely many periodic cylinders.