Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 February 2009
A homeomorphism f of a manifold M is called H1-transitive if there is a transitive lift of an iterate of f to the universal Abelian cover . Roughly speaking, this means that f has orbits which repeatedly and densely explore all elements of H1(M). For a rel pseudo-Anosov map ϕ of a compact surface M we show that the following are equivalent: (a) ϕ is H1-transitive, (b) the action of ϕ on H1(M) has spectral radius one and (c) the lifts of the invariant foliations of ϕ to have dense leaves. The proof relies on a characterization of transitivity for twisted ℤd-extensions of a transitive subshift of finite type.