On the generalised transfer operators of the Farey Map with complex temperature

We consider the problem of showing that 1 is an eigenvalue for a family of generalised transfer operators of the Farey map. This is an important problem in the thermodynamic formalism approach to dynamical systems, which in this particular case is related to the spectral theory of the modular surface via the Selberg Zeta function and the theory of dynamical zeta functions of maps. After briefly recalling these connections, we show that the problem can be formulated for operators on an appropriate Hilbert space and translated into a linear algebra problem for infinite matrices. This formulation gives a new way to study numerically the spectrum of the Laplace–Beltrami operator and the properties of the Selberg Zeta function for the modular surface.