We prove the holomorphic rigidity conjecture of Teichmüller space which loosely speaking states that the action of the mapping class group uniquely determines the Teichmüller space as a complex manifold. The method of proof is through harmonic maps. We prove that the singular set of a harmonic map from a smooth $n$-dimensional Riemannian domain to the Weil-Petersson completion $\overline{\mathcal T}$ of Teichmüller space has Hausdorff dimension at most $n-2$, and moreover, $u$ has certain decay near the singular set. Combining this with the earlier work of Schumacher, Siu and Jost-Yau, we provide a proof of the holomorphic rigidity of Teichmüller space. In addition, our results provide as a byproduct a harmonic maps proof of both the high rank and the rank one superrigidity of the mapping class group proved via other methods by Farb-Masur and Yeung.
We show that every $\mathbb R$-linear surjective isometry between the cotangent spaces to the Teichmüller space equipped with the Thurston norm is induced by some isometry between the underlying hyperbolic surfaces, which is an analogue of Royden's theorem concerning the Teichmüller metric.
In this paper, we extend the construction of pressure metrics to Teichmüller spaces of surfaces with punctures. This construction recovers Thurston's Riemannian metric on Teichmüller spaces. Moreover, we prove the real analyticity and the convexity of Manhattan curves of the finite area type-preserving Fuchsian representations, and thus we obtain several related entropy rigidity results. Lastly, relating the two topics mentioned above, we show that one can derive the pressure metric by varying Manhattan curves.
We extend Siu's and Sampson's celebrated rigidity results to non-compact domains. More precisely, let $M$ be a smooth quasi-projective variety with universal cover $\tilde M$ and let $\tilde X$ be a symmetric space of non-compact type, a locally finite Euclidean building or the Weil-Petersson completion of the Teichmüller space of a surface of genus $g$ and $p$ punctures with $3g-3+p>0$. Under suitable assumptions on a homomorphism $ρ: π_1(M) \rightarrow \mathsf{Isom}(\tilde X)$, we show that there exists a $ρ$-equivariant pluriharmonic map $\tilde u: \tilde M \rightarrow \tilde X$ of possibly…
We discuss how one uses the thermodynamic formalism to produce metrics on higher Teichmüller spaces. Our higher Teichmüller spaces will be spaces of Anosov representations of a word-hyperbolic group into a semi-simple Lie group. We begin by discussing our construction in the classical setting of the Teichmüller space of a closed orientable surface of genus at least 2, then we explain the construction for Hitchin components and finally we treat the general case. This paper surveys results of Bridgeman-Canary-Labourie-Sambarino "\emph{The pressure metric for Anosov representations}" and discusse…
If $p : Y \to X$ is an unramified covering map between two compact oriented surfaces of genus at least two, then it is proved that the embedding map, corresponding to $p$, from the Teichmüller space ${\cal T}(X)$, for $X$, to ${\cal T}(Y)$ actually extends to an embedding between the Thurston compactification of the two Teichmüller spaces. Using this result, an inductive limit of Thurston compactified Teichmüller spaces has been constructed, where the index for the inductive limit runs over all possible finite unramified coverings of a fixed compact oriented surface of genus at least two. This…
For a Riemann surface $X$ and the moduli of regularly stable $G$-bundles $M$, there is a naturally occuring "$adjoint$" vector bundle over $X \times M$. One can take the determinant of this vector bundle with respect to the projection map onto $M$. Our aim here is to study the curvature of the determinant bundle as the conformal structure on $X$ varies over the Teichmüller space.
Let $M$ be a closed Riemann surface, $N$ a Riemannian manifold of Hermitian non-positive curvature, $f:M\to N$ a continuous map, and $E$ the function on the Teichmüller space of $M$ that assigns to a complex structure on $M$ the energy of the harmonic map homotopic to $f$. We show that $E$ is a plurisubharmonic function on the Teichmüller space of $M$. If $N$ has strictly negative Hermitian curvature, we characterize the directions in which the complex Hessian of $E$ vanishes.
We construct a Weil-Petersson geodesic completion of Teichmuller space through the formalism of Coxeter complex with the Teichmuller space as its non-linear non-homogeneous fundamental domain. We show that the metric and geodesic completions both satisfy a finite rank property, demonstrating a similarity with the non-compact symmetric spaces of semi-simple Lie groups.
We derive generalizations of McShane's identity for higher ranked surface group representations by studying a family of mapping class group invariant functions introduced by Goncharov and Shen which generalize the notion of horocycle lengths. In particular, we obtain McShane-type identities for finite-area cusped convex real projective surfaces by generalizing the Birman--Series geodesic scarcity theorem. More generally, we establish McShane-type identities for positive surface group representations with loxodromic boundary monodromy, as well as McShane-type inequalities for general rank posit…
Harmonic mappings into Teichmuller spaces appear in the study of manifolds which are fibrations whose fibers are Riemann surfaces. In this article we will study the existence and uniquenesses questions of harmonic mappings into Teichmuller spaces, as well as some local and global behavior of the harmonic images induced by the Weil-Petersson geometry of Teichmuller spaces.
We study the Teichmüller space of negatively curved metrics on a high dimensional manifold, with applications to bundles with negatively curved fibers.
The Teichmüller curve is the fiber space over Teichmüller space of closed Riemann surfaces, where the fiber over a point in Teichmüller space is the underlying surface. We derive formulas for sectional curvatures on the Teichmüller curve. In particular, our method can be applied to investigate the geometry of the Weil-Petersson geodesic as a three-manifold, and the degeneration of the curvatures near the infinity of the augmented Teichmüller space along a Weil-Petersson geodesic, as well as the minimality of hyperbolic surfaces in this three-manifold.
We prove that the Teichmüller space $\mathscr{T}$ of a closed surface of genus $g \ge 2$ cannot be biholomorphic to any domain which is locally strictly convex at some boundary point.
In this paper, we study the asymptotic geometry of Teichmuller space of Riemann surfaces and give bounds on the Weil-Petersson sectional curvature of Teichmuller space, in terms of the length of the shortest geodesic on the surface. This will also imply that the sectional curvature is not pinched from above or below by any negative constant.
We survey explicit coordinate descriptions for two (A and X) versions of Teichmuller and lamination spaces for open 2D surfaces, and extend them to the more general set-up of surfaces with distinguished collections of points on the boundary. Main features, such as mapping class group action, Poisson and symplectic structures and others, are described in these terms. The lamination spaces are interpreted as the tropical limits of the Teichmuller ones. Canonical pairings between lamination and Teichmuller spaces are constructed. The paper could serve as an introduction to higher Teichmuller theo…
The canonical metric on a Riemann surface is the pullback from the Euclidean metric on the Jacobian variety via the period map. We study its induced L^2 metric on Teichmuller space via a variational approach.
We obtain basic estimates for a Monge-Ampère equation introduced by Moncrief in the study of the Relativistic Teichmüller Theory. We then give another proof of the parametrization of the Teichmüller space obtained by Moncrief. Our approach provides yet another proof of the classical Teichmüller theorem that the Teichmüller space of a compact oriented surface of genus $g(Σ)>1$ is diffeomorphic to the disk of dimension $6g(Σ)-6$. We also give another proof of properness of a certain energy function on the Teichmüller space.
We characterization hyperbolic metrics on compact surfaces with boundary using a variational principle. As a consequence, a new parametrization of the Teichmuller space of compact surface with boundary is produced. In the new parametrization, the Teichmuller space becomes an open convex polytope. It is conjectured that the Weil-Petersson symplectic form can be expressed explicitly in terms of the new coordinate.
The sectional curvature of the Weil-Petersson metric on Teichmuller space is known to be negative. We show that this Weil-Petersson sectional curvature is not pinched from above by any negative constants, i.e., there is no negative upper bound.
The universal Teichmüller space is an infinitely dimensional generalization of the classical Teichmüller space of Riemann surfaces. It carries a natural Hilbert structure, on which one can define a natural Riemannian metric, the Weil-Petersson metric. In this paper we investigate the Weil-Petersson Riemannian curvature operator $\tilde{Q}$ of the universal Teichmüller space with the Hilbert structure, and prove the following: (i) $\tilde{Q}$ is non-positive definite. (ii) $\tilde{Q}$ is a bounded operator. (iii) $\tilde{Q}$ is not compact; the set of the spectra of $\tilde{Q}$ is not discrete.…
We discuss the existence of the angle between two curves in Teichmüller spaces and show that, in any infinite dimensional Teichmüller space, there exist infinitely many geodesic triangles each of which has the same three vertices and satisfies the property that its three sides have the same and arbitrarily given length while its three angles are equal to any given three possibly different numbers from 0 to $π$. This implies that the sum of three angles of a geodesic triangle may be equal to any given number from 0 to $3π$ in an infinite dimensional Teichmüller space.
For a smooth manifold $M$ we define the Teichmüller space $\cT(M)$ of all Riemannian metrics on $M$ and the Teichmüller space $\cT^ε(M)$ of $ε$-pinched negatively curved metrics on $M$, where $0\leqε\leq\infty$. We prove that if $M$ is hyperbolic the natural inclusion $\cT^ε(M)\hookrightarrow\cT(M)$ is, in general, not homotopically trivial. In particular, $\cT^ε(M)$ is, in general, not contractible.
In this paper, a comparison between the Bergman kernel form and the pushforward measure of the Masur-Veech meaure on the Teichmuller space of genus $g\ge 2$ is obtained.
Using the identification of the symmetric space $\mathrm{SL}(n,\mathbb{R})/\mathrm{SO}(n)$ with the Teichmüller space of flat $n$-tori of unit volume, we explore several metrics and compactifications of these spaces, drawing inspiration both from Teichmüller theory and symmetric spaces. We define and study analogs of the Thurston, Teichmüller, and Weil-Petersson metrics. We show the Teichmüller metric is a symmetrization of the Thurston metric, which is a polyhedral Finsler metric, and the Weil-Petersson metric is the Riemannian metric of $\mathrm{SL}(n,\mathbb{R})/\mathrm{SO}(n)$ as a symmetr…
This survey covers earlier work of the author as well as recent work on Riemann's moduli space, its canonical cell decomposition and compactification, and the related operadic structure of arc complexes.
We show that any grafting ray in Teichmüller space determined by an arational lamination or a multi-curve is (strongly) asymptotic to a Teichmüller geodesic ray. As a consequence the projection of a generic grafting ray to moduli space is dense. We also show that the set of points in Teichmüller space obtained by integer (2π-) graftings on any hyperbolic surface projects to a dense set, which implies that complex projective surfaces with any fixed Fuchsian holonomy are dense in moduli space.
An almost Fuchsian 3-manifold is a quasi-Fuchsian manifold which contains an incompressible closed minimal surface with principal curvatures in the range of $(-1,1)$. Such a 3-manifold $M$ admits a foliation of parallel surfaces, whose locus in Teichmüller space is represented as a path $γ$, we show that $γ$ joins the conformal structures of the two components of the conformal boundary of $M$. Moreover, we obtain an upper bound for the Teichmüller distance between any two points on $γ$, in particular, the Teichmüller distance between the two components of the conformal boundary of $M$, in term…
The Bers-Greenberg theorem tells that the Teichmüller space of a Riemann surface with branch points (orbifold) depends only on the genus and the number of special points, but not on the particular ramification values. On the other hand, the Maskit embedding provides a mapping from the Teichmüller space of an orbifold, into the product of one dimensional Teichmüller spaces. In this paper we prove that there is a set of isomorphisms between one dimensional Teichmüller spaces that, when restricted to the image of the Teichmüller space of an orbifold under the Maskit embedding, provides the Bers-G…
Given a closed surface endowed with a volume form, we equip the space of compatible Riemannian structures with the structure of an infinite-dimensional symplectic manifold. We show that the natural action of the group of volume-preserving diffeomorphisms by push-forward has a group-valued momentum map that assigns to a Riemannian metric the canonical bundle. We then deduce that the Teichmüller space and the moduli space of Riemann surfaces can be realized as symplectic orbit reduced spaces.
This paper shows that, in dimensions two or more, there are no holomorphic isometries between Teichmüller spaces and bounded symmetric domains in their intrinsic Kobayashi metrics.
We use meromorphic quadratic differentials with higher order poles to parametrize the Teichmüller space of crowned hyperbolic surfaces. Such a surface is obtained on uniformizing a compact Riemann surface with marked points on its boundary components, and has non-compact ends with boundary cusps. This extends Wolf's parametrization of the Teichmüller space of a closed surface using holomorphic quadratic differentials. Our proof involves showing the existence of a harmonic map from a punctured Riemann surface to a crowned hyperbolic surface, with prescribed principal parts of its Hopf different…
We prove that the universal Teichmuller space T(1) carries a new structure of a complex Hilbert manifold. We show that the connected component of the identity of T(1), the Hilbert submanifold T_{0}(1), is a topological group. We define a Weil-Petersson metric on T(1) by Hilbert space inner products on tangent spaces, compute its Riemann curvature tensor, and show that T(1) is a Kahler-Einstein manifold with negative Ricci and sectional curvatures. We introduce and compute Mumford-Miller-Morita characteristic forms for the vertical tangent bundle of the universal Teichmuller curve fibration ove…
Grafting is a method of obtaining new projective structures from a hyperbolic structure, basically by gluing a flat cylinder into a surface along a closed geodesic in the hyperbolic structure, or by limits of that procedure. This induces a map of Teichmuller space to itself. We prove that this map is a homeomorphism by analyzing harmonic maps between pairs of grafted surfaces. As a corollary we obtain bending coordinates for the Bers embedding of Teichmuller space.
Over the past two decades the theory of the Weil-Petersson metric has been extended to general Teichmüller spaces of infinite type, including for example the universal Teichmüller space. In this paper we give a survey of the main results in the Weil-Petersson geometry of infinite-dimensional Teichmüller spaces. This includes the rigorous definition of complex Hilbert manifold structures, Kähler geometry and global analysis, and generalizations of the period mapping. We also discuss the motivations of the theory in representation theory and physics beginning in the 1980s. Some examples of the a…
This short note provides an overview of some theorems and conjectures obtained by the author and his collaborators. It is an extended abstract for the Oberwolfach workshop "New Trends in Teichmüller Theory and Mapping Class Groups", 2 September - 8 September 2018.
