Bers and H\'enon, Painlev\'e and Schroedinger

Abstract

We study the dynamics of mapping class groups on 2-dimensional character varieties. We shall show that the dynamics of pseudo-Anosov mapping classes resembles in many ways the dynamics of H\'enon mappings, and then apply this idea to answer open questions concerning the geometry of discrete and faithful representations, Painlev\'e sixth equation, and discrete Schroedinger operators.