Anosov flows with the same periodic orbits

Abstract

In [Orbit equivalences of pseudo-Anosov flows, arXiv:2211.10505], it was proved that transitive pseudo-Anosov flows on any closed 3-manifold are determined up to orbit equivalence by the set of free homotopy classes represented by periodic orbits, provided their orbit space does not contain a feature called a "tree of scalloped regions." In this article we describe what happens in these exceptional cases: we show what topological features in the manifold correspond to trees of scalloped regions, completely classify the flows which do have the same free homotopy data, and construct explicit examples of flows with the same free homotopy data that are not orbit equivalent.

27 pages. Comments welcome. v2: added some justifications for background results in the non-orientable case. minor changes