Bijective arithmetic codings of hyperbolic automorphisms of the 2-torus, and binary quadratic forms

Abstract

We study the arithmetic codings of hyperbolic automorphisms of the 2-torus, i.e. the continuous mappings acting from a certain symbolic space of sequences with a finite alphabet endowed with an appropriate structure of additive group onto the torus which preserve this structure and turn the two-sided shift into a given automorphism of the torus. This group is uniquely defined by an automorphism, and such an arithmetic coding is a homomorphism of that group onto the 2-torus. The necessary and sufficient condition of the existence of a bijective arithmetic coding is obtained; it is formulated in terms of a certain binary quadratic form constructed by means of a given automorphism. Furthermore, we describe all bijective arithmetic codings in terms the Dirichlet group of the corresponding quadratic field. The minimum of that quadratic form over the nonzero elements of the lattice coincides with the minimal possible order of the kernel of a homomorphism described above.