The action of the affine diffeomorphisms on the relative homology group of certain exceptionally symmetric origamis (Q609745)

In this article the authors describe the action of the affine group on the homology of certain square tiled translation surfaces constructed by Forni and Forni-Matheus. Let \(M\) denote a compact surface of genus \(g\geq 1\). A translation surface structure on \(M\) is a complex structure on \(M\) together with a nonzero 1-form \(\omega\) that is holomorphic with respect to the complex structure. The space \({\mathfrak T}(M)\) (respectively \({\mathfrak M}(M))\) is the space of orbits of the natural action of \(\text{Diff}^+_0(M)\) (respectively \(\text{Diff}^+(M))\) on the space of translation surface structures. \(SL(2,\mathbb R)\) acts naturally on \({\mathfrak M}(M)\) and \({\mathfrak T}(M)\), and the Teichmüller flow \(G_t\) on both spaces is the action of the 1-parameter group \(\{G_t= \text{diag}(e^t,e^{-t}) \}\). The Kontsevich-Zorich cocyle \(G_t^{KZ}\) is the quotient of the trivial cocyle \(G_t\times \text{Id}:{\mathfrak T}(M) \times H^1(M,\mathbb R)\rightarrow{\mathfrak T}(M) \times H^1(M,\mathbb R)\) by the action of the mapping class group. If \(A :{\mathfrak M}(M) \rightarrow \mathbb R\) is the area function, then the unit tangent bundle \({\mathfrak M}^{(1)}(M) = A^{-1}(M)\) is stratified into finitely many analytic pieces \({\mathfrak M}^{(1)}(M,\kappa)\) invariant under \(SL(2,\mathbb R)\) and in particular under \(\{G_t\}\). Each piece \({\mathfrak M}^{(1)}(M,\kappa)\) possesses a natural finite, \(\{G_t\}\)-invariant measure \(\mu^{(1)}_\kappa\) such that \(\{G_t\}\) is ergodic on each connected component of \({\mathfrak M}^{(1)}(M,\kappa)\) with respect to \(\mu^{(1)}_\kappa\). Kontsevich and Zorich conjectured, and it was later proved, that the Lyapunov exponents of \(\{G_t^{KZ}\}\) for a \(\mu^{(1)}_\kappa\)-generic point are all nonzero and have multiplicity 1. Forni and Forni-Matheus have constructed non-generic translation surfaces \((M_3,\omega_3)\) and \((M_4,\omega_4)\) of genus 3 and 4 whose \(\{G_t^{KZ}\}\) Lyapunov exponents are all zero. These examples are the center piece of the current article. Let \((M,\omega)\) be a translation surface, and let \(\Sigma\) be the finite set of zeros of \(\omega\). The affine group \(\text{Aff}(M,\omega)\) of \((M,\omega)\) is the group of orientation preserving homeomorphisms of M that preserve \(\Sigma\) and are given by affine maps in the charts defined by local primitives of \(\omega\). One obtains a natural homomorphism from \(\text{Aff}(M,\omega)\) into \(SL(2,\mathbb R)\) whose kernel is the automorphism group \(\Aut(M,\omega)\). The image of this homomorphism is a discrete subgroup of \(SL(2,\mathbb R)\) that is called the Veech group and denoted by \(SL(M,\omega)\). If \(SL(M,\omega)\) is a lattice in \(SL(2,\mathbb R)\), then \((M,\omega)\) is called a Veech surface. This happens if and only if the \(SL(2,\mathbb R)\) orbit of \((M,\omega)\) is closed in \({\mathfrak M}(M)\). For the Forni example \((M_3,\omega_3)\), the Veech group is \(SL(2,\mathbb Z)\) and the automorphism group is the 8-element quaternion group \(Q= \{\pm 1, \pm i, \pm j, \pm k\}\). For the Forni-Matheus example \((M_4, \omega_4)\), the Veech group is also \(SL(2,\mathbb Z)\) and the automorphism group is the cyclic group of order 3. A translation surface \((M,\omega)\) is called square tiled if the integral of \(\omega\) over any path joining two zeros of \(\omega\) lies in \(\mathbb Z+ i\mathbb Z\). The authors describe the action by the affine group on the homology of the square tiled Forni and Forni-Matheus examples \((M_3, \omega_3)\) and \((M_4, \omega_4)\). We omit a precise statement of this action which is rather complicated.