We introduce Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates on Teicmüller spaces of surfaces of infinite type. The definition is relative to a given pair of pants decomposition of the surface. We start by establishing conditions under which any pair of pants decomposition on a hyperbolic surface of infinite type can be turned into a geometric decomposition, that is, a decomposition into hyperbolic pairs of pants. This is expressed in terms of a condition we introduce and which we call Nielsen convexity. This condition is related to Nielsen cores of Fuchsian groups. We use this to define the Fenchel-Nielsen Teichmüller space associated to a geometric pair of pants decomposition. We study a metric on such a Teichmüller space, and we compare it to the quasiconformal Teichmüller space, equipped with the Teichmüller metric. We study conditions under which there is an equality between these Teichmüller spaces and we study topological and metric properties of the identity map when this map exists.
We comment on Teichm{ü}ller 's paper ''Vollst{ä}ndige L{ö}sung einer Extremalaufgabe der quasikonformen Abbildung'' (Complete solution of an ex-tremal problem of the quasiconformal mapping),, published in 1941. In this paper, Teichm{ü}ller gives a proof of the existence of extremal quasiconformal mappings in the case of the pentagon (disc with five distinguished points on the boundary). The final version of this paper will appear as a chapter in Volume VI of the Handbook of Teichm{ü}ller theory.
In this paper, the Teichm{ü}ller spaces of surfaces appear from two points of views: the conformal category and the hyperbolic category. In contrast to the case of surfaces of topologically finite type, the Teichm{ü}ller spaces associated to surfaces of topologically infinite type depend on the choice of a base structure. In the setting of surfaces of infinite type, the Teichm{ü}ller spaces can be endowed with different distance functions such as the length-spectrum distance, the bi-Lipschitz distance, the Fenchel-Nielsen distance, the Teichm{ü}ller distance and there are other distance functi…
For each right-angled hexagon in the hyperbolic plane, we construct a one-parameter family of right-angled hexagons with a Lipschitz map between any two elements in this family, realizing the smallest Lipschitz constant in the homotopy class of this map relative to the boundary. As a consequence of this construction, we exhibit new geodesics for the arc metric on the Teichm{ü}ller space of an arbitrary surface of negative Euler characteristic with nonempty boundary. We also obtain new geodesics for Thurston's metric on Teichm{ü}ller spaces of hyperbolic surfaces without boundary.
These are notes on the hyperbolic geometry of surfaces, Teichm{ü}ller spaces and Thurston's metric on these spaces. They are associated with lectures I gave at the Morningside Center of Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in March 2019 and at the Chebyshev Laboratory of the Saint Petersburg State University in May 2019. In particular, I survey several results on the behavior of stretch lines, a distinguished class of geodesics for Thurston's metric and I point out several analogies between this metric and Teichm{ü}ller's metric. Several open questions are addressed. The final versio…
In this paper, we introduce a new asymmetric weak metric on the Teichm{ü}ller space of a closed orientable surface with (possibly empty) punctures.This new metric, which we call the Teichm{ü}ller-Randers metric, is an asymmetric deformation of the Teichm{ü}ller metric, and is obtained by adding to the infinitesimal form of the Teichm{ü}ller metric a differential 1-form. We study basic properties of the Teichm{ü}ller-Randers metric. In the case when the 1-form is exact, any Teichm{ü}ller geodesic between two points is a unique Teichm{ü}ller--Randers geodesic between them. A particularly interes…
Let $S$ be a closed oriented surface of genus at least $2$, and denote by $\mathcal{T}(S)$ its Teichm{ü}ller space. For any isotopy class of closed curves $γ$, we compute the first three derivatives of the length function $\ell\_γ:\mathcal{T}(S)\rightarrow\mathbf{R}\_+$ in the shearing coordinates associated to a maximal geodesic lamination $λ$. We show that if $γ$ intersects every leaf of $λ$, then the Hessian of $\ell\_γ$ is positive-definite. We extend this result to length functions of measured laminations. We also provide a method to compute higher derivatives of length functions of geode…
In this paper, we show that the analogue of Thurston's asymmetric metric on the Teichm{ü}ller space of flat structures on the torus is weak Finsler and we give a geometric description of its unit sphere at each point in the tangent space to Teichm{ü}ller space. We then introduce a family of weak Finsler metrics which interpolate between Thurston's asymmetric metric and the Teichm{ü}ller metric of the torus (which coincides with the the hyperbolic metric). We describe the infinitesimal unit spheres of the metrics in this family.The final version of this paper will appear in Annales Academiæ \ S…
The combinatorial structure of the unit tangent spheres and cotangent spheres of Teichm{ü}ller space with Thurston's Finsler metric
Gakushuin University（学习院大学）；Max-Planck Institute for Mathematics（马克斯·普朗克数学研究所）；Institut de Recherche Mathématique Avancée, CNRS et Université de Strasbourg（斯特拉斯堡大学法国国家科学研究中心高级数学研究所）
We survey some major contributions to Riemann's moduli space and Teichm{ü}ller space. Our report has a historical character, but the stress is on the chain of mathematical ideas. We start with the introduction of Riemann surfaces, and we end with the discovery of some of the basic structures of Riemann's moduli space and Teichm{ü}ller space. We point out several facts which seem to be unknown to many algebraic geometers and analysts working in the theory. The period we are interested in starts with Riemann, in 1851, and ends in the early 1960s, when Ahlfors and Bers confirmed that Teichm{ü}lle…
This is a commentary on Teichm{ü}ller's paper Unter-suchungen{ü}ber konforme und quasikonforme Abbildungen (Inves-tigations on conformal and quasiconformal mappings) published in 1938. The paper contains fundamental results in conformal geometry , in particular a lemma, known as the Modulsatz, which insures the almost circularity of certain loci defined as complementary components of simply connected regions in the Riemann sphere, and another lemma, which we call the Main Lemma, which insures the circularity near infinity of the image of circles by a qua-siconformal map. The two results find w…
This is a mathematical commentary on Teichm{ü}ller's paper ``Bestimmung der extremalen quasikonformen Abbildungen bei geschlossenen orientierten Riemannschen Fl{ä}chen'' (Determination of extremal quasiconformal maps of closed oriented Riemann surfaces). This paper is among the last (and may be the last one) that Teichm{ü}ller wrote on the theory of moduli. It contains the proof of the so-called Teichm{ü}ller existence theorem for a closed surface of genus at least 2. For this proof, the author defines a mapping between a space of equivalence classes of marked Riemann surfaces (the Teichm{ü}ll…
We provide a commentary on Teichm{ü}ller's paper "Extremale quasikonforme Abbildungen und quadratische Differentiale" (Extremal quasiconformal mappings of closed oriented Riemann surfaces), Abh. Preuss. Akad. Wiss., Math.-Naturw. Kl. 1940, No.22, 1-197 (1940). The paper is quoted in several works, although it was read by very few people. Some of the results it contains were rediscovered later on and published without any reference to Teichm{ü}ller.In this commentary, we highlight the main results and the main ideas contained in that paper and we describe some of the important developments they…
The type problem is the problem of deciding, for a simply connected Riemann surface, whether it is conformally equivalent to the complex plane or to the unit dic in the complex plane. We report on Teichm{ü}ller's results on the type problem from his two papers Eine Anwendung quasikonformer Abbildungen auf das Typenproblem (An application of quasiconformal map-pings to the type problem) (1937) and Untersuchungen{ü}ber kon-forme und quasikonforme Abbildungen (Investigations on con-formal and quasiconformal mappings) (1938). They concern simply connected Riemann surfaces defined as branched cover…
For $g \ge 5$, we give a complete classification of the connected components of strata of abelian differentials over Teichmüller space, establishing an analogue of Kontsevich and Zorich's classification of their components over moduli space. Building off of work of the first author (arXiv:1901.05482), we find that the non-hyperelliptic components are classified by an invariant known as an $r$-spin structure. This is accomplished by computing a certain monodromy group valued in the mapping class group. To do this, we determine explicit finite generating sets for all $r$-spin stabilizer subgroup…
This is a commentary on Teichm{ü}ller's paper Ein Verschiebungssatz der quasikonformen Abbildung (A displacement theorem of quasiconformal mapping), published in 1944. We explain in detail how Teichm{ü}ller solves the problem of finding the quasiconformal mapping from the unit disc to itself, sending 0 to a strictly negative point on the real line, holding the boundary of the disc pointwise fixed and with the smallest quasiconformal dilatation. We mention also some consequences of this extremal problem and we ask a question.
Let $X$ be an infinite hyperbolic surface endowed with an upper bounded geodesic pants decomposition. Alessandrini, Liu, Papadopoulos, Su and Sun \cite{ALPSS}, \cite{ALPS} parametrized the quasiconformal Teichmüller space $T_{qc}(X)$ and the length spectrum Teichmüller space $T_{ls}(X)$ using the Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates. A quasiconformal map $f:X\to Y$ is said to be {\it asymptotically conformal} if its Beltrami coefficient $μ=\bar{\partial}f/\partial f$ converges to zero at infinity. The space of all asymptotically conformal maps up to homotopy and post-composition by conformal maps is ca…
The arc metric is an asymmetric metric on the Teichm{ü}ller space T(S) of a surface S with nonempty boundary. In this paper we study the relation between Thurston's compactification and the horofunction compactification of T(S) endowed with the arc metric. We prove that there is a natural homeomorphism between the two compactifications.
We prove that there are Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates for the Teichmueller space of a finite area hyperbolic surface with respect to which the length functions are convex.
Given a topological orientable surface of finite or infinite type equipped with a pair of pants decomposition $\mathcal{P}$ and given a base complex structure $X$ on $S$, there is an associated deformation space of complex structures on $S$, which we call the Fenchel-Nielsen Teichmüller space associated to the pair $(\mathcal{P},X)$. This space carries a metric, which we call the Fenchel-Nielsen metric, defined using Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates. We studied this metric in the papers \cite{ALPSS}, \cite{various} and \cite{local}, and we compared it to the classical Teichmüller metric (defined us…
We show that the length spectrum metric on Teichmüller spaces of surfaces of infinite topological type is complete. We also give related results and examples that compare the length spectrum Teichmüller space with quasiconformal and the Fenchel-Nielsen Teichmüller spaces on such surfaces
This paper is a continuation of the previous paper of the author[M]. We show that an affine deformation space of a hyperbolic surface of type (g,b) can be parametrized by Margulis invariants and affine twist parameters with a certain decomposition of the surface, which are associated with the Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates in Teichmuller theory. W.Goldman and G.Margulis[GM] introduced that a translation part of an affine deformation canonically corresponds to a tangent vector on the Teichmuller space. By this correspondence, we explicitly represent tangent vectors on the Teichmuller space from th…
We consider complex Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates on the quasi-Fuchsian space of punctured tori. These coordinates arise from a generalisation of Kra's plumbing construction and are related to earthquakes on Teichmueller space. They also allow us to interpolate between two coordinate systems on Teichmueller space, namely the classical Fuchsian space with Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates and the Maskit embedding. We also show how they relate to the pleating coordinates of Keen and Series.
Given a surface of infinite topological type, there are several Teichmüller spaces associated with it, depending on the basepoint and on the point of view that one uses to compare different complex structures. This paper is about the comparison between the quasiconformal Teichmüller space and the length-spectrum Teichmüller space. We work under this hypothesis that the basepoint is upper-bounded and admits short interior curves. There is a natural inclusion of the quasiconformal space in the length-spectrum space. We prove that, under the above hypothesis, the image of this inclusion is nowher…
We review some ideas of Grothendieck and others on actions of the absolute Galois group Γ Q of Q (the automorphism group of the tower of finite extensions of Q), related to the geometry and topology of surfaces (mapping class groups, Teichm{ü}ller spaces and moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces). Grothendieck's motivation came in part from his desire to understand the absolute Galois group. But he was also interested in Thurston's work on surfaces, and he expressed this in his Esquisse d'un programme, his R{é}coltes et semailles and on other occasions. He introduced the notions of dessin d'enfant…
Let $X_0$ be an infinite genus hyperbolic surface (whose boundary components, if any, are closed geodesics or punctures) which has an upper bounded pants decomposition. The length spectrum Teichmüller space $T_{ls}(X_0)$ consists of all surfaces $X$ homeomorphic to $X_0$ such that the ratios of the corresponding simple closed geodesics are uniformly bounded from below and from above. Alessandrini, Liu, Papadopoulos and Su described the Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates for $T_{ls}(X_0)$ and using these coordinates they proved that $T_{ls}(X_0)$ is path connected. We use the Fenchel-Nielsen coordinat…
Grothendieck's Esquisse d'un programme is often referred to for the ideas it contains on dessins d'enfants, the Teichm{ü}ller tower, and the actions of the absolute Galois group on these objects or their etale fundamental groups. But this program contains several other important ideas. In particular, motivated by surface topology and moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces, Grothendieck calls there for a recasting of topology, in order to make it fit to the objects of semialgebraic and semianalytic geometry, and in particular to the study of the Mumford-Deligne compactifications of moduli spaces. A …
In the Teichmüller space of a hyperbolic surface of finite type, we construct geodesic lines for Thurston's asymmetric metric having the property that when they are traversed in the reverse direction, they are also geodesic lines (up to reparametrization). The lines we construct are special stretch lines in the sense of Thurston. They are directed by complete geodesic laminations that are not chain-recurrent, and they have a nice description in terms of Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates. At the basis of the construction are certain maps with controlled Lipschitz constants between right-angled hyperb…
We explicitly describe the Teichmuller space TH_n of hyperelliptic surfaces in terms of natural and effective coordinates as the space of certain (2n-6)-tuples of distinct points on the ideal boundary of the Poincare disc. We essentially use the concept of a simple earthquake which is a particular case of a Fenchel-Nielsen twist deformation. Such earthquakes generate a group that acts transitively on TH_n. This fact can be interpreted as a continuous analog of the well-known Dehn theorem saying that the mapping class group is generated by Dehn twists. We find a simple and effective criterion t…
There are several Teichmüller spaces associated to a surface of infinite topological type, after the choice of a particular basepoint (a complex or a hyperbolic structure on the surface). These spaces include the quasiconformal Teichmüller space, the length spectrum Teichmüller space, the Fenchel-Nielsen Teichmüller space, and there are others. In general, these spaces are set-theoretically different. An important question is therefore to understand relations between these spaces. Each of these spaces is equipped with its own metric, and under some hypotheses, there are inclusions between thes…
Given a compact orientable surface of negative Euler characteristic, there exists a natural pairing between the Teichmueuller space of the surface and the set of homotopy classes of simple loops and arcs. The length pairing sends a hyperbolic metric and a homotopy class of a simple loop or arc to the length of geodesic in its homotopy class. We study this pairing function using the Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates on Teichmueller space and the Dehn-Thurston coordinates on the space of homotopy classes of curve systems. Our main result establishes Lipschitz type estimates for the length pairing expr…
We provide analogues for non-orientable surfaces with or without boundary or punctures of several basic theorems in the setting of the Thurston theory of surfaces which were developed so far only in the case of orientable surfaces. Namely, we provide natural analogues for non-orientable surfaces of the Fenchel-Nielsen theorem on the parametrization of the Teichmüller space of the surface, the Dehn-Thurston theorem on the parametrization of measured foliations in the surface, and the Hatcher-Thurston theorem, which gives a complete minimal set of moves between pair of pants decompositions of th…
Given a Riemann surface with boundary S, the lengths of a maximal system of disjoint simple geodesic arcs on S that start and end at the boundary of S perpendicularly are coordinates on the Teichmueller space T(S). We compute the Weil-Petersson Poisson structure on T(S) in this system of coordinates and we prove that it limits pointwise to the piecewise-linear Poisson structure defined by Kontsevich on the arc complex of S. As a byproduct of the proof, we obtain a formula for the first-order variation of the distance between two closed geodesics under Fenchel-Nielsen deformation.
For bordered surfaces S, we develop a complete parallel between the geometry of the combinatorial Teichmüller space $T_S^{comb}$ equipped with Kontsevich symplectic form $ω_K$, and then the usual Weil-Petersson geometry of Teichmüller space $T_S$. The basis for this is an identification of $T_S^{comb}$ with a space of measured foliations with transverse boundary conditions. We equip $T_S^{comb}$ with an analog of the Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates (defined similarly as Dehn-Thurston coordinates) and show they are Darboux for $ω_K$ (analog of Wolpert formula). We then set up the geometric recursio…
We review some basic concepts related to convex real projective structures from the differential geometry point of view. We start by recalling a Riemannian metric which originates in the study of affine spheres using the Blaschke connection (work of Calabi and of Cheng-Yau) mentioning its relation with the Hilbert metric. We then survey some of the deformation theory of convex real projective structures on surfaces. We describe in particular how the set of (Hilbert) lengths of simple closed curves is used in a parametrization of the deformation space in analogy with the classical Fenchel-Niels…
