A dynamical perspective on shear-bend coordinates

Abstract

Twisted $\operatorname{SL}_2 \mathbb{C}$ local systems on surfaces of finite type appear often in geometry and physics. Most of them arise geometrically as local systems of charts for pleated hyperbolic structures. Bonahon and Thurston's "shear-bend coordinates" parameterize these local systems of charts. On a surface with punctures, Gaiotto, Hollands, Moore and Neitzke's "abelianization" process computes the shear-bend coordinates of a twisted $\operatorname{SL}_2 \mathbb{C}$ local system without reference to its hyperbolic geometry. Using tools from dynamics, we'll generalize abelianization to compact surfaces, leading to a dynamical recipe for the shear-bend parameterization. This recipe lends itself well to numerical approximation, and it may clarify the changes of coordinates that relate different shear parameterizations.