Revista Matemática Iberoamericana
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Published online: 2005-12-31
Asymptotic windings over the trefoil knot
Jacques Franchi[1] (1) Université de Strasbourg, FranceConsider the group $G:=PSL_2(\mathbb R)$ and its subgroups $\Gamma:= PSL_2(\mathbb{Z})$ and $\Gamma':= DSL_2(\mathbb{Z})$. $G/\Gamma$ is a canonical realization (up to an homeomorphism) of the complement $\mathbb S^3\setminus T$ of the trefoil knot $T$, and $G/\Gamma'$ is a canonical realization of the 6-fold branched cyclic cover of $\mathbb S^3\setminus T$, which has 3-dimensional cohomology of 1-forms. Putting natural left-invariant Riemannian metrics on $G$, it makes sense to ask which is the asymptotic homology performed by the Brownian motion in $G/\Gamma'$, describing thereby in an intrinsic way part of the asymptotic Brownian behavior in the fundamental group of the complement of the trefoil knot. A good basis of the cohomology of $ G/\Gamma'$, made of harmonic 1-forms, is calculated, and then the asymptotic Brownian behavior is obtained, by means of the joint asymptotic law of the integrals of the above basis along the Brownian paths. Finally the geodesics of $G$ are determined, a natural class of ergodic measures for the geodesic flow is exhibited, and the asymptotic geodesic behavior in $G/\Gamma'$ is calculated, by reduction to its Brownian analogue, though it is not precisely the same (counter to the hyperbolic case).
Keywords: Trefoil knot, modular group, quasi-hyperbolic manifold, harmonic 1-forms, Brownian motion, geodesics, ergodic measures, geodesic flow, asymptotic laws
Franchi Jacques: Asymptotic windings over the trefoil knot. Rev. Mat. Iberoamericana 21 (2005), 729-770. doi: 10.4171/RMI/434