Limiting modular symbols and their fractal geometry

M. Kesseboehmer, B. O. Stratmann

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In this paper we use fractal geometry to investigate boundary aspects of the first homology group for finite coverings of the modular surface. We obtain a complete description of algebraically invisible parts of this homology group. More precisely, we first show that for any modular subgroup the geodesic forward dynamic on the associated surface admits a canonical symbolic representation by a finitely irreducible shift space. We then use this representation to derive a complete multifractal description of the higher--dimensional level sets arising from Manin--Marcolli's limiting modular symbols.