First-return maps of Birkhoff sections of the geodesic flow

Abstract

This paper compares different pseudo-Anosov maps coming from different Birkhoff sections of a given flow. More precisely, given a hyperbolic surface and a collection of periodic geodesics on it, we study those Birkhoff sections for the geodesic flow on the unit bundle to the surface bounded by the collection. We show that there is a canonical identification of all those surfaces, and that the first-return maps induced by the flow can all be expressed as a composition of negative Dehn twists along the same family of curves: only the order depends on the choice of a particular surface.