A construction of pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms using positive twists (Q6164263)

\textit{W. P. Thurston} [Bull. Am. Math. Soc., New Ser. 19, No. 2, 417--431 (1988; Zbl 0674.57008)] and \textit{R. C. Penner} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 310, No. 1, 179--197 (1988; Zbl 0706.57008)] both gave simple constructions producing infinitely many pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms of a surface. \textit{P. Hubert} and \textit{E. Lanneau} proved [Duke Math. J. 133, No. 2, 335--346 (2006; Zbl 1101.30044)] that the trace field \(\mathbb Q(\lambda + \lambda^{-1})\) for the stretch factor \(\lambda\) of examples arising from Thurston's construction is always totally real; \textit{H. Shin} and \textit{B. Strenner} proved [Geom. Topol. 19, No. 6, 3645--3656 (2015; Zbl 1358.37080)] that the Galois conjugates of the stretch factor of examples arising from Penner's construction never lie on the unit circle in \(\mathbb C\). In the present paper, the author introduces a new construction of pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms (of the \(n\)-times punctured sphere and, using branched covers, of surfaces of higher genus), with various number-theoretic properties of the stretch factors, in particular constructing examples with a not totally real trace field \(\mathbb Q(\lambda + \lambda^{-1})\) and with Galois conjugates of the stretch factor lying on the unit disk; consequently, no power of these examples can arise from either Penner's or Thurston's construction.