Symmetry of topographs of Markoff forms
Ryuji Abe, Iain R. Aitchison · International Journal of Number Theory · 2020
The Markoff spectrum is defined as the set of normalized values of arithmetic minima of indefinite quadratic forms. In the theory of the Markoff spectrum we observe various kinds of symmetry. Each of Conway’s topographs of quadratic forms which give values in the discrete part of the Markoff spectrum has a special infinite path consisting of edges. It has symmetry with respect to a translation along the path and countable central symmetries by which the path is invariant. We prove that these properties are obtained from the fact that the path is a discretization of a geodesic in the upper half-plane which corresponds to a value of the discrete part of the Markoff spectrum and projects to a simple closed geodesic on the once punctured torus with the highest degree of symmetry.