Counting closed geodesics in globally hyperbolic maximal compact AdS 3-manifolds (Q527597)

Quasi-Fuchsian 3-manifolds and certain Lorentzian 3-manifolds locally modeled on anti-de Sitter spaces are parametrized by a pair of points in the Teichmüller space of a compact surface \(S\) of genus \(g \geq 2\). Quasi-Fuchsian 3-manifolds have been studied intensively for many years. In this article, the author defines a critical exponent for a special class of anti-de Sitter manifolds and he relates it to the critical exponent in the quasi-Fuchsian case, that is defined by the asymptotic growth rate as \(T \rightarrow \infty\) of the number of closed geodesics of length at most \(T\). For these anti-de Sitter manifolds, the author obtains rigidity theorems for the critical exponent that are analogous to critical exponent rigidity theorems in the quasi-Fuchsian case. Let \(M(2,\mathbb{R})\), the \(2 \times 2\) real matrices, be endowed with the scalar product \(\eta\) induced by the quadratic form \( Q = -\operatorname{det}\). The anti-de Sitter space (AdS) is defined to be the level \(-1\) of \(Q\), that is \(\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})\). The retriction of \(\eta\) to AdS has signature \((2,1)\), and the left-right action of \(\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R}) \times \mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})\) on AdS preserves \(\eta\). An anti-de Sitter manifold \(M\) is a 3-manifold locally modeled on AdS. The holonomy of \(M\) defines two natural representations \(\rho_{L}, \rho_{R} : \pi_{1}(M) \rightarrow \mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{R})\). In a Lorentzian 3-manifold \(M\), a Cauchy surface is a space-like surface \(S\) that intersects each inextendible time-like or light-like curve in exactly one point. A Lorentzian 3-manifold \(M\) with a Cauchy surface is said to be globally hyperbolic. All Cauchy surfaces in \(M\) are homeomorphic. The manifold \(M\) is said to be maximal if there is no isometric imbedding of \(M\) into a larger spacetime that sends a Cauchy surface into a Cauchy surface. If \(M\) has a Cauchy surface \(S\) that is compact with genus \(g \geq 2\) and \(M\) is maximal, then \(M\) is said to be globally hyperbolic maximal compact (GHMC). If \(M\) is a GHMC manifold with a Cauchy surface \(S\), then \(\pi_{1}(M) = \pi_{1}(S)\) and the representations \(\rho_{L}, \rho_{R} : \pi_{1}(S) \rightarrow \mathrm{PSL}(2, \mathbb{R})\) define two points in the Teichmüller space of \(S\). A hyperbolic 3-manifold \(M = H^{3} / \Gamma\) is said to be quasi-Fuchsian if the limit set of the fundamental group \(\Gamma\) is topologically a circle in the sphere at infinity, \(H^{3}(\infty) \approx S^{2}\). A quasi-Fuchsian manifold \(M\) is topologically a product \(S \times \mathbb{R}\), where \(S\) is a compact surface of genus \(g \geq 2\). As a consequence, quasi-Fuchsian manifolds \(M\) are also parametrized by pairs of points in the Teichmüller space of \(S\).