Measures supported on the set of uniquely ergodic directions of an arbitrary holomorphic 1-form

Abstract

We introduce a set, $Q({\bf T})$, of Borel probability measures on the circle such that each $\mu\in Q({\bf T})$ obeys the conclusion of the Kerckhoff–Masur–Smillie theorem [3]: if $q$ is a meromorphic quadratic differential with at worst simple poles on a closed Riemann surface, then for each $\mu\in Q({\bf T})$ and $\mu$-a.e. $\zeta\in{\bf T}$, $\zeta q$ has uniquely ergodic vertical foliation. As an example, the normalized Cantor–Lebesgue measure belongs to $Q({\bf T})$. The analysis also yields an analogue, for the Teichmüller horocycle flow, of a theorem of Dani: every locally finite ergodic invariant measure for the Teichmüller horocycle flow is finite.