Continuum-wise hyperbolicity is exactly the pseudo-Anosov dynamics with spine singularities

Abstract

We establish a complete structural classification for continuum-wise hyperbolic surface homeomorphisms. Specifically, we prove that a surface homeomorphism is cw$_F$-hyperbolic if, and only if, it is a pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism whose singularities consist exclusively of spines (1-prongs). Furthermore, we classify these systems up to topological conjugacy, showing that every such homeomorphism is conjugate to either an Anosov automorphism on the torus $\mathbb{T}^2$ or to its standard hyperelliptic quotient on the sphere $\mathbb{S}^2$. As a rigid consequence of this classification, we show that such dynamics are strictly obstructed on surfaces of genus greater than one, the Klein bottle, and the projective plane.