Given $d\in \mathbb{N}$, $g\in \mathbb{N} \cup\{0\}$, and an integral vector $κ=(k_1,\dots,k_n)$ such that $k_i>-d$ and $k_1+\dots+k_n=d(2g-2)$, let $Ω^d\mathcal{M}_{g,n}(κ)$ denote the moduli space of meromorphic $d$-differentials on Riemann surfaces of genus $g$ whose zeros and poles have orders prescribed by $κ$. We show that $Ω^d\mathcal{M}_{g,n}(κ)$ carries a canonical volume form that is parallel with respect to its affine complex manifold structure, and that the total volume of $\mathbb{P}Ω^d\mathcal{M}_{g,n}(κ)=Ω^d\mathcal{M}_{g,n}/\mathbb{C}^*$ with respect to the measure induced by this volume form is finite.
In this paper, we are interested in flat metric structures with conical singularities on surfaces which are obtained by deforming translation surface structures. The moduli space of such flat metric structures can be viewed as some deformation of the moduli space of translation surfaces. Using geodesic triangulations, we define a volume form on this moduli space, and show that, in the well-known cases, this volume form agrees with usual ones, up to a multiplicative constant.
The materials accompany a lecture short course presented at the 2011 Park City Mathematics Institute, Graduate Summer School on Moduli Spaces of Riemann Surfaces. The lectures were part of/coordinated with an overall program, including lectures by Ursula Hamenstadt on Teichmueller Theory, Andy Putman on Mapping Class and Torelli Groups, and Carel Faber on Tautological algebras of Moduli Spaces.
Moduli spaces of hyperbolic surfaces may be endowed with a symplectic structure via the Weil-Petersson form. Mirzakhani proved that Weil-Petersson volumes exhibit polynomial behaviour and that their coefficients store intersection numbers on moduli spaces of curves. In this survey article, we discuss these results as well as some consequences and applications.
For the moduli space of unmarked convex $\mathbb{RP}^2$ structures on the surface $S_{g,m}$ with negative Euler characteristic, we investigate the subsets of the moduli space defined by the notions like boundedness of projective invariants, area, Gromov hyperbolicity constant, quasisymmetricity constant etc. These subsets are comparable to each other. We show that the Goldman symplectic volume of the subset with certain projective invariants bounded above by $t$ and fixed boundary simple root lengths $\mathbf{L}$ is bounded above by a positive polynomial of $(t,\mathbf{L})$ and thus the volume…
For the moduli spaces of Abelian differentials, the Euler characteristic is one of the most basic intrinsic topological invariants. We give a formula for the Euler characteristic that relies on intersection theory on the smooth compactification by multi-scale differentials. It is a consequence of a formula for the full Chern polynomial of the cotangent bundle of the compactification. The main new technical tools are an Euler sequence for the cotangent bundle of the moduli space of Abelian differentials and computational tools in the Chow ring, such as normal bundles to boundary divisors.
The seminal work of Eskin-Masur-Zorich described the principal boundary of moduli spaces of abelian differentials that parameterizes flat surfaces with a prescribed generic configuration of short parallel saddle connections. In this paper we describe the principal boundary for each configuration in terms of twisted differentials over Deligne-Mumford pointed stable curves. We also describe similarly the principal boundary of moduli spaces of quadratic differentials originally studied by Masur-Zorich. Our main technique is the flat geometric degeneration and smoothing developed by Bainbridge-Che…
The volumes of strata of Abelian or quadratic differentials play an important role in the study of dynamics on flat surfaces, related to dynamics in polygonal billiards. This article reviews all known ways to compute volumes in the quadratic case and provides explicit values of volumes of the strata of meromorphic quadratic differentials with at most simple poles in all low dimensions.
Consider the moduli space of pairs (C,w) where C is a smooth compact complex curve of a given genus and w is a holomorphic 1-form on C with a given list of multiplicities of zeroes. We describe connected components of this space. This classification is important in the study of dynamics of interval exchange transformations and billiards in rational polygons, and in the study of geometry of translation surfaces.
We show that the complex hyperbolic metrics defined by Deligne-Mostow and Thurston on ${\mathcal{M}}_{0,n}$ are singular Kähler-Einstein metrics when ${\mathcal{M}}_{0,n}$ is embedded in the Deligne-Mumford-Knudsen compactification $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{0,n}$. As a consequence, we obtain a formula computing the volumes of ${\mathcal{M}}_{0,n}$ with respect to these metrics using intersection of boundary divisors of $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{0,n}$. In the case of rational weights, following an idea of Y. Kawamata, we show that these metrics actually represent the first Chern class of some lin…
The boundary of the multi-scale differential compactification of strata of abelian differentials admits an explicit combinatorial description. However, even for low-dimensional strata, the complexity of the boundary requires use of a computer. We give a description of the algorithms implemented in the SageMath package diffstrata to enumerate the boundary components and perform intersection theory on this space. In particular, the package can compute the Euler characteristic of strata using the methods developed by the same authors in [CMZ20].
Consider the 1-dimensional Hurwitz space parameterizing covers of P^1 branched at four points. We study its intersection with divisor classes on the moduli space of curves. As an application, we calculate the slope of the Teichmuller curve parameterizing square-tiled cyclic covers and recover the sum of its Lyapunov exponents obtained by Forni, Matheus and Zorich. Motivated by the work of Eskin, Kontsevich and Zorich, we exhibit a relation among the slope of Hurwitz spaces, the sum of Lyapunov exponents and the Siegel-Veech constant for the moduli space of quadratic differentials.
In this article we describe cell decompositions of the moduli space of Riemann surfaces and their relationship to a Hurwitz problem. The cells possess natural linear structures and with respect to this they can be described as rational convex polytopes which come equipped with natural integer points and a volume form. We show how to effectively calculate the number of lattice points and the volumes over all the cells and that these calculations contain deep information about the moduli space.
We describe typical degenerations of quadratic differentials thus describing ``generic cusps'' of the moduli space of meromorphic quadratic differentials with at most simple poles. The part of the boundary of the moduli space which does not arise from ``generic'' degenerations is often negligible in problems involving information on compactification of the moduli space. However, even for a typical degeneration one may have several short loops on the Riemann surface which shrink simultaneously. We explain this phenomenon, describe all rigid configurations of short loops, present a detailed desc…
We study relations between Rauzy classes coming from an interval exchange map and the corresponding connected components of strata of the moduli space of Abelian differentials. This gives a criterion to decide whether two permutations are in the same Rauzy class or not, without actually computing them. We prove a similar result for Rauzy classes corresponding to quadratic differentials.
In this paper, we study the translation surfaces corresponding to meromorphic differentials on compact Riemann surfaces. We compute the number of connected components of the corresponding strata of the moduli space. We show that in genus greater than or equal to two, one has up to three components with a similar description as the one of Kontsevich and Zorich for the moduli space of Abelian differentials. In genus one, one can obtain an arbitrarily large number of connected components that are easily distinghished by a simple topological invariant.
For $g\geq2$, $j=1,\dots,g$ and $n\geq g+j$ we exhibit infinitely many new rigid and extremal effective codimension $j$ cycles in $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$ from the strata of quadratic differentials and projections of these strata under forgetful morphisms and show the same holds for $k$-differentials with $k\geq 3$ if the strata are irreducible. We compute the class of the divisors in the case of quadratic differentials which contain the first known examples of effective divisors on $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$ with negative $ψ_i$ coefficients.
In this paper, we study fundamental groups of strata of the moduli space of quadratic differentials. We use certain properties of the Abel-Jacobi map, combined with local surgeries on quadratic differentials, to construct quotient groups of the fundamental groups for a particular family of strata.
We express the Masur-Veech volume and the area Siegel-Veech constant of the moduli space of meromorphic quadratic differential with simple poles as polynomials in the intersection numbers of psi-classes supported on the boundary cycles of the Deligne-Mumford compactification of the moduli space of curves. Our formulae are derived from lattice point count involving the Kontsevich volume polynomials that also appear in Mirzakhani's recursion for the Weil-Petersson volumes of the moduli space of bordered hyperbolic Riemann surfaces. A similar formula for the Masur-Veech volume (though without exp…
Flat surfaces with erasing forest are obtained by deforming the flat metric structure of translation surfaces, the moduli space of such surfaces is a deformation of the moduli space of translation surfaces. On the moduli space of flat surfaces with erasing forest, one can define some energy function involving the area of the surface, and the total length of the erasing forest. Note that on this space, we have a volume form which is defined by using geodesic triangulations. The aim of this paper is to prove that the integral of the energy functions mentionned above with respect to this volume f…
Moduli spaces of quadratic differentials with prescribed singularities are not necessarily connected. We describe here all cases when they have a special hyperelliptic connected component. We announce the general classification theorem: up to the four exceptional cases in low genera the strata of meromorphic quadratic differentials are either connected, or have exactly two connected components, and one of the two components is hyperelliptic.
There is a canonical identification, due to the author, of a convex real projective structure on an orientable surface of genus g and a pair consisting of a conformal structure together with a holomorphic cubic differential on the surface. The Deligne-Mumford compactification of the moduli space of curves then suggests a partial compactification of the moduli space of convex real projective structures: Allow the Riemann surface to degenerate to a stable nodal curve on which there is a regular cubic differential. We construct convex real projective structures on open surfaces corresponding to t…
Very few results are known about the topology of the strata of the moduli space of quadratic differentials. In this paper, we prove that any connected component of such strata has only one topological end. A typical flat surface in a neighborhood of the boundary is naturally split by a collection of parallel short saddle connections, but the discrete data associated to this splitting can be quite difficult to describe. In order to bypass these difficulties, we use the Veech zippered rectangles construction and the corresponding (extended) Rauzy classes.
The period is a classical complex analytic invariant for a compact Riemann surface defined by integration of differential 1-forms. It has a strong relationship with the complex structure of the surface. In this chapter, we review another complex analytic invariant called the harmonic volume. It is a natural extension of the period defined using Chen's iterated integrals and captures more detailed information of the complex structure. It is also one of a few explicitly computable examples of complex analytic invariants. As an application, we give an algorithm in proving nontriviality for a clas…
We present an explicit formula relating volumes of strata of meromorphicquadratic differentials with at most simple poles on Riemann surfacesand counting functions of the number of flat cylinders filled by closedgeodesics in associated flat metric with singularities. This generalizes the resultof Athreya, Eskin and Zorich in genus 0 to higher genera.
Volumes of moduli spaces of bordered Klein surfaces
Sorbonne Université（索邦大学）；Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya（加泰罗尼亚理工大学）；Université Paris-Saclay（巴黎萨克雷大学）；Institut de Physique Théorique（理论物理研究所）；University of Tokyo（东京大学）；Kobayashi–Masakawa Institute for the Origin of Particles and the Universe（小林诚益川英理粒子与宇宙起源研究所）；Nagoya University（名古屋大学）
We propose an approach to find constant curvature metrics on triangulated closed 3-manifolds using a finite dimensional variational method whose energy function is the volume. The concept of an angle structure on a tetrahedron and on a triangulated closed 3-manifold is introduced following the work of Casson, Murakami and Rivin. It is proved by A. Kitaev and the author that any closed 3-manifold has a triangulation supporting an angle structure. The moduli space of all angle structures on a triangulated 3-manifold is a bounded open convex polytope in a Euclidean space. The volume of an angle s…
We express the Masur-Veech volume and the area Siegel-Veech constant of the moduli space $\mathcal{Q}_{g,n}$ of genus $g$ meromorphic quadratic differentials with $n$ simple poles as polynomials in the intersection numbers of $ψ$-classes with explicit rational coefficients. The formulae obtained in this article result from lattice point counts involving the Kontsevich volume polynomials that also appear in Mirzakhani's recursion for the Weil-Petersson volumes of the moduli spaces of bordered hyperbolic surfaces with geodesic boundaries. A similar formula for the Masur-Veech volume (though with…
We study framed translation surfaces corresponding to meromorphic differentials on compact Riemann surfaces, for which a horizontal separatrix is marked for each pole or zero. Such geometric structures naturally appear when studying flat geometry surfaces "near" the Deligne-Mumford boundary.We compute the number of connected components of the corresponding strata, and give a simple topological invariant that distinguishes them. In particular we see that for $g>0$, there are at most two such components, except in the hyperelliptic case.
We show that associating the Euclidean cell decomposition due to Cooper and Long to each point of the moduli space of framed strictly convex real projective structures of finite volume on the once-punctured torus gives this moduli space a natural cell decomposition. The proof makes use of coordinates due to Fock and Goncharov, the action of the mapping class group as well as algorithmic real algebraic geometry. We also show that the decorated moduli space of framed strictly convex real projective structures of finite volume on the thrice-punctured sphere has a natural cell decomposition.
For any oriented Seifert manifold X and compact connected Lie group G with finite center, we relate the Reidemeister density of the moduli space of representations of the fundamental group of X into G to the Liouville measure of some moduli spaces of representations of surface groups into G.
We use the relation between the volumes of the strata of meromorphic quadratic differentials with at most simple poles on the Riemann sphere and counting functions of the number of (bands of) closed geodesics in associated flat metrics with singularities to prove a very explicit formula for the volume of each such stratum conjectured by M. Kontsevich a decade ago. The proof is based on a formula for the Lyapunov exponents of the geodesic flow on the moduli space, which gives a recursive formula from which the volumes could be recovered. An appendix with an ergodic theorem proved by Jon Chaika …
We give a description of asymptotic quadratic growth rates for geodesic segments on covers of Veech surfaces in terms of the modular fiber parameterizing coverings of a fixed Veech surface. To make the paper self contained we derive the necessary asymptotic formulas from the Gutkin-Judge formula. As an application of the method we define and analyze d-symmetric elliptic differentials and their modular fibers F^{sym}_d. For given genus g, g-symmetric elliptic differentials (with fixed base lattice) provide a 2-dimensional family of translation surfaces. We calculate several asymptotic constants…
In two fundamental classical papers, Masur and Veech have independently proved that the Teichmueller geodesic flow acts ergodically on each connected component of each stratum of the moduli space of quadratic differentials. It is therefore interesting to have a classification of the ergodic components. Veech has proved that these strata are not necessarily connected. In a recent work, Kontsevich and Zorich have completely classified the components in the particular case where the quadratic differentials are given by the global square of Abelian differentials. Here we are interested in the comp…
An increasingly important area of interest for mathematicians is the study of Abelian differentials. This growing interest can be attributed to the interdisciplinary role this subject plays in modern mathematics, as various problems of algebraic geometry, dynamical systems, geometry and topology lead to the study of such objects. It comes as a natural consequence that we can employ in our study algebraic, analytic, combinatorial and dynamical perspectives. These lecture notes aim to provide an expository introduction to this subject that will emphasize the aforementioned links between differen…
For a non-uniform lattice in SL(2,R), we consider excursions in cusp neighborhoods of a random geodesic on the corresponding finite area hyperbolic surface or orbifold. We prove a strong law for a certain partial sum involving these excursions. This generalizes a theorem of Diamond and Vaaler for continued fractions. In the Teichmuller setting, we consider invariant measures for the SL(2,R) action on the moduli spaces of quadratic differentials. By the work of Eskin and Mirzakhani, these measures are supported on affine invariant submanifolds of a stratum of quadratic differentials. For a Teic…
