Coding Teichmüller flow using veering triangulations

Abstract

We develop the theory of veering triangulations on oriented surfaces adapted to moduli spaces of half-translation surfaces. We use veering triangulations to give a coding of the Teichmüller flow on connected components of strata of quadratic differentials. We prove that this coding, given by a countable shift, has an approximate product structure and a roof function with exponential tails. This makes it conducive to the study of the dynamics of Teichmüller flow.

35 pages, 8 figures