Ergodicity of the geodesic flow on symmetric surfaces

Abstract

We consider conditions on the Fenchel-Nielsen parameters of a Riemann surface <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper X"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mi>X</mml:mi> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">X</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> that guarantee the surface <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper X"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mi>X</mml:mi> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">X</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> is of parabolic type. An interesting class of Riemann surfaces for this problem is the one with finitely many topological ends. In this case the length part of the Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates can go to infinity for parabolic <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper X"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mi>X</mml:mi> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">X</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula>. When the surface <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper X"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mi>X</mml:mi> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">X</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> is end symmetric, we prove that <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper X"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mi>X</mml:mi> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">X</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> being parabolic is equivalent to the covering group being of the first kind. Then we give necessary and sufficient conditions on the Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates of a half-twist symmetric surface <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper X"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mi>X</mml:mi> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">X</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> such that <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper X"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mi>X</mml:mi> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">X</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> is parabolic. As an application, we solve an open question from the prior work of Basmajian, Hakobyan and the second author [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 125 (2022), pp. 568–625].