Even-odd monotonicity conjecture for orientation-reversing stretch factors

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Let SgS_g be the closed orientable surface of genus gg, and let δrev+(Sg)\delta^+_{\mathrm{rev}}(S_g) be the minimal stretch factor among orientation-reversing pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms of SgS_g with orientable invariant foliations.

Even-odd monotonicity conjecture. For all k≥1k\geq 1,

δrev+(S2k)>δrev+(S2k−1).\delta^+_{\mathrm{rev}}(S_{2k})>\delta^+_{\mathrm{rev}}(S_{2k-1}).

The conjecture asserts strict increase at every even-to-odd genus comparison and is motivated by the failure of strict decrease at every other step in the computed data. It remains open.

References

Primary source

Livio Liechti and Balázs Strenner, “Minimal pseudo-Anosov stretch factors on nonoriented surfaces”, arXiv:1806.00033 (2020).

Additional references

3 papers in this index state this conjecture (2012–2018). The statement above is taken from the most recent of them; the others are arXiv:1507.05296, arXiv:1201.6629.

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