Zero Lyapunov exponents of the Hodge bundle

From MaRDI portal
(Redirected from Publication:2510754)



Abstract: By the results of G. Forni and of R. Trevi~no, the Lyapunov spectrum of the Hodge bundle over the Teichm"uller geodesic flow on the strata of Abelian and of quadratic differentials does not contain zeroes even though for certain invariant submanifolds zero exponents are present in the Lyapunov spectrum. In all previously known examples, the zero exponents correspond to those PSL(2,R)-invariant subbundles of the real Hodge bundle for which the monodromy of the Gauss-Manin connection acts by isometries of the Hodge metric. We present an example of an arithmetic Teichm"uller curve, for which the real Hodge bundle does not contain any PSL(2,R)-invariant, continuous subbundles, and nevertheless its spectrum of Lyapunov exponents contains zeroes. We describe the mechanism of this phenomenon; it covers the previously known situation as a particular case. Conjecturally, this is the only way zero exponents can appear in the Lyapunov spectrum of the Hodge bundle for any PSL(2,R)-invariant probability measure.


The Kontsevich-Zorich cocycle arises from the renormalization dynamics of straight line flows (respectively leaves of foliations) associated to holomorphic abelian (respectively quadratic) differentials on Riemann surfaces. The Lyapunov exponents of this cocycle represent different (power-law) orders of deviation from the asymptotic cycles for these flows. Of particular interest are when exponents are zero, indicating very slow deviations. There are no zero exponents for the full Hodge bundle, but there are \(\mathrm{PSL}(2, \mathbb R)\)-invariant manifolds for which there are zero exponents. Until this paper, in all known examples the zero exponents corresponded to a \(\mathrm{PSL}(2, \mathbb R)\)-invariant subbundle for which the monodromy of the Gauss-Manin connection acts by isometries of the Hodge metric. The paper gives an example of an arithmetic Teichmüller curve, with zero Lyapunov exponents, for which the real Hodge bundle does not contain any \(\mathrm{PSL}(2, \mathbb R)\)-invariant subbundles. The construction comes from a covering of a setting with an invariant sub-bundle, and the authors conjecture that this is the only mechanism for zero exponents.




Cited in
(23)








This page was built for publication: Zero Lyapunov exponents of the Hodge bundle

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q2510754)