Goldman bracket and length equivalent filling curves

Abstract

A pair of distinct free homotopy classes of closed curves in an orientable surface $F$ with negative Euler characteristic is said to be length equivalent if for any hyperbolic structure on $F$, the length of the geodesic representative of one class is equal to the length of the geodesic representative of the other class. Suppose $α$ and $β$ are two intersecting oriented closed curves on $F$ and $P$ and $Q$ are any two intersection points between them. If the two terms $\langleα*_Pβ\rangle$ and $\langleα*_Qβ\rangle$ in $[\langleα\rangle,\langleβ\rangle]$, the Goldman bracket between them, are the same, then we construct infinitely many pairs of length equivalent curves in $F.$ These pairs correspond to the terms of the Goldman bracket between a power of $α$ and $β$. As a special case, our construction shows that given a self-intersecting geodesic $α$ of $F$ and any self-intersection point $P$ of $α$, we get a sequence of such pairs. Furthermore if $α$ is a filling curve then these pairs are also filling.