A representative of an element of is a determinant-one matrix over the Gaussian integers, considered up to its common sign. It acts by a Möbius transformation of the disk. Since and , we have
Only finitely many Gaussian-integer pairs can have in a fixed compact subdisk. More generally, if carries some point of a compact set into , and lies in the hyperbolic ball of radius about zero, the triangle inequality gives . Thus there are only finitely many such . This proves the properly discontinuous group action, and in particular discreteness. The specified belong to , so their subgroup is discrete as well.
The fixed-point equations reduce to for and for . Thus their unique fixed points are respectively and on the ideal boundary. Neither transformation is the identity; their displayed determinant-one representatives have trace two. They are therefore parabolic Möbius transformations.
To find the Dirichlet domains, use the Möbius transformation
It takes the disk to the upper half-plane, and direct substitution gives
For and in the upper half-plane, the hyperbolic distance obeys . Since , the distance inequalities are equivalent to
These reduce to for all integers . The cases imply , which also suffices for every other . Therefore the cyclic Dirichlet domain becomes the strip .
The two vertical hyperbolic geodesics pull back to arcs joining to and to . In disk coordinates they are the circles and , restricted to the disk. Thus
Conjugating by gives , so its two hyperbolic geodesics join to and to , and
The requested drawing and their intersection are shown below.
Figure 1.
Cyclic parabolic Dirichlet region and the four-sided region for the two generators
. Details.
For any , the orbit points satisfying form a nonempty finite set, by proper discontinuity and compactness of closed hyperbolic balls. Choose a closest one, . For every integer , its minimality gives
and the same inequality with . Hence lies in the ideal hyperbolic quadrilateral
Its ideal vertices are .
For the quotient identification, it remains to justify that this covering region is a fundamental polygon. The four open corner caps excluded by are pairwise disjoint inside the disk. The transformation carries the exterior of the lower-right cap into the upper-right cap; reverses the pairing. Similarly carries the exterior of the upper-left cap into the lower-left cap, and reverses this. These assertions follow either from the upper-half-plane formulas or by mapping their boundary circles and testing zero: and .
Apply a reduced word in from right to left to a point in the interior of . The first letter puts it into its target cap. Every subsequent letter can do the same, since its inverse cap is distinct from the preceding target cap unless the word cancels. Thus the final point lies in the target cap of the leftmost letter, never in the interior of . This ping-pong lemma argument proves freeness and disjointness of distinct translated interiors. Together with orbit coverage it makes a fundamental polygon. The corresponding argument on closed caps shows that boundary identifications are generated by the stated side pairings.
The generator pairs the side from to with the side from to , fixing the ideal endpoint and sending to . The generator pairs the side from to with the side from to , fixing and sending to . There are three ideal-vertex classes: , and . The first two give parabolic ends from ; the third does too, since is a nonidentity parabolic transformation fixing . Adding one point at each end produces an oriented closed surface with one face, two edges and three vertices. Its Euler characteristic is , so it is a sphere. Removing the three added points gives a thrice-punctured sphere, proving
Thrice-punctured sphere 2026-10-14
The sphere with three points removed is an orientable noncompact surface of genus zero with three ends. It can be realized by pairing the two sides at each of two opposite ideal vertices of an ideal hyperbolic quadrilateral in the hyperbolic disk. The four ideal vertices fall into three equivalence classes; after adding these three points the cell structure has one face, two edges and three vertices, hence Euler characteristic two. Removing these added vertices recovers the original quotient.