We show the map $σ: T_g \to C_g$ sending a compact hyperbolic surface $X$ to a random simple closed geodesic on $X$ determines a proper embedding of Teichmüller space into the space of geodesic currents. The proof depends on a formula for the intersection number $i(C,C')$ of a pair of multicurves, expressed in terms of Dehn coordinates on $ML_g(\mathbb{Z})$.
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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）
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.
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 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…
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 …
We obtain bounds on the numbers of intersections between triangulations as the conformal structure of a surface varies along a Teichm{ü}ller geodesic contained in an $\mathrm{SL}\left(2,\mathbb{R}\right)$-orbit closure of rank 1 in the moduli space of Abelian differentials. For $0 \leq θ\leq 1$, we obtain an exponential bound on the number of closed geodesics in the orbit closure, of length at most $R$, that spend at least $θ$-fraction of their length in a region with short saddle connections.
We prove that the Teichmüller space of the Hirsch foliation (a minimal foliation of a closed 3-manifold by non-compact hyperbolic surfaces) is homeomorphic to the space of closed curves in the plane. This allows us to show that that the space of hyperbolic metrics on the foliation is a trivial principal fiber bundle. And that the structure group of this bundle, the arc-connected component of the identity in the group of homeomorphisms which are smooth on each leaf and vary continuously in the smooth topology in the transverse direction of the foliation, is contractible.
We show that the action of the mapping class group on the space of closed curves of a closed surface effectively tracks the corresponding action on Teichmüller space in the following sense: for all but quantitatively few mapping classes, the information of how a mapping class moves a given point of Teichmüller space determines, up to a power saving error term, how it changes the geometric intersection numbers of a given closed curve with respect to arbitrary geodesic currents. Applications include an effective estimate describing the speed of convergence of Teichmüller geodesic rays to the bou…
Using geodesic length functions, we define a natural family of real codimension 1 subvarieties of Teichmüller space, namely the subsets where the lengths of two distinct simple closed geodesics are of equal length. We investigate the point set topology of the union of all such hypersurfaces using elementary methods. Finally, this analysis is applied to investigate the nature of the Markoff conjecture.
Given a hyperbolic surface and a simple closed geodesic on it, complex-twists along the curve produce a holomorphic family of deformations in Teichmüller space, degenerating to the Riemann surface where it is pinched. We show there is a corresponding Teichmüller disk such that the two are strongly asymptotic, in the Teichmüller metric, around the noded Riemann surface. We establish a similar comparison with plumbing deformations that open the node.
Let S be an oriented surface of genus g with m punctures. If 3g-3+m is at least 4 then we construct for every compact subset K of moduli space a closed Teichmueller geodesic not intersecting K.
We prove that the pressure metric on the Teichmüller space of a bordered surface is incomplete and its partial completion can be given by the moduli space of metric graphs for a fat graph associated to the same bordered surface equipped with pressure metric. As a corollary, we show that the pressure metric is not a constant multiple of the Weil-Petersson metric which is different from the closed surface case.
Athreya, Bufetov, Eskin and Mirzakhani have shown the number of mapping class group lattice points intersecting a closed ball of radius $R$ in Teichmüller space is asymptotic to $e^{hR}$, where $h$ is the dimension of the Teichmüller space. In contrast we show the number of Dehn twist lattice points intersecting a closed ball of radius $R$ is coarsely asymptotic to $e^{\frac{h}{2}R}$. Moreover, we show the number multi-twist lattice points intersecting a closed ball of radius $R$ grows coarsely at least at the rate of $R \cdot e^{\frac{h}{2}R}$.
Let $S$ be a closed, genus $g$ surface. The space of geodesic currents on $S$ encompasses the set of closed curves up to homotopy, as well as Teichmüller space, and many other spaces of structures on $S$. We show that one can define a mapping class group equivariant, length-minimizing projection from the set of filling geodesic currents down to Teichmüller space, and prove some basic properties of this projection to show that it is well-behaved.
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…
Athreya, Bufetov, Eskin and Mirzakhani have shown the number of mapping class group lattice points intersecting a closed ball of radius $R$ in Teichmüller space is asymptotic to $e^{hR}$, where $h$ is the dimension of the Teichmüller space. We show for any pseudo-Anosov mapping class $f$, there exists a power $n$, such that the number of lattice points of the $f^n$ conjugacy class intersecting a closed ball of radius $R$ is coarsely asymptotic to $e^{\frac{h}{2}R}$.
Minkowski space is the local model of 3 dimensionnal flat spacetimes. Recent progress in the description of globally hyperbolic flat spacetimes showed strong link between Lorentzian geometry and Teichm{ü}ller space. We notice that Lorentzian generalisations of conical singularities are useful for the endeavours of descripting flat spacetimes, creating stronger links with hyperbolic geometry and compactifying spacetimes. In particular massive particles and extreme BTZ singular lines arise naturally. This paper is three-fold. First, prove background local properties which will be useful for futu…
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…
Let S be a nonexceptional oriented surface of finite type. We construct an uncountable family of probability measures on the space of area on holomorphic quadratic differentials over the moduli space for S containing the usual Lebesgue measure. These measures are invariant under the Teichmueller geodesic flow, and they are mixing, absolutely continuous with respect to the stable and unstable foliation adn exponentially recurrent to a compact set. Finally we show that the critical exponent of the mapping class group equals the dimension of the Teichmueller space for S. Moreover, this critical e…
We show that for every simple closed curve α, the extremal length and the hyperbolic length of αare quasi-convex functions along any Teichmuller geodesic. As a corollary, we conclude that, in Teichmuller space equipped with the Teichmuller metric, balls are quasi- convex.
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.
Let $S$ be a closed, orientable surface of genus at least 2. The cotangent bundle of the "hyperbolic'' Teichmüller space of $S$ can be identified with the space $\CP$ of complex projective structures on $S$ through measured laminations, while the cotangent bundle of the "complex'' Teichmüller space can be identified with $\CP$ through the Schwarzian derivative. We prove that the resulting map between the two cotangent spaces, although not smooth, is symplectic. The proof uses a variant of the renormalized volume defined for hyperbolic ends.
Quasi-convexity of energy functions along Teichmüller geodesics
Korea Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS)（韩国高等科学研究院）；Chongqing University of Technology（重庆理工大学）；Chalmers University of Technology, University of Gothenburg（哥德堡大学查尔姆斯理工大学）
Wolf gave a homeomorphism from the Teichmüller space to the space of quadratic differentials on a closed Riemann surface by using harmonic maps. Moreover, using harmonic maps rays, he gave a compactification of the Teichmüller space and show that it coincides with the Thurston compactification. In this paper, we extend the harmonic maps compactification to the Teichmüller spaces of punctured Riemann surfaces, and show that it still coincides with the Thurston compactification.
We give an example of a horocycle in the Teichmüller space of the five-times-punctured sphere that does not converge in the Gardiner--Masur compactification, or equivalently in the horofunction compactification of the Teichmüller metric. As an intermediate step, we exhibit a simple closed curve whose extremal length is periodic but not constant along the horocycle. The example lifts to any Teichmüller space of complex dimension greater than one via covering constructions.
Using the methods of the previous paper [ABG], we show that the Teichmuller space T of all closed Riemann surfaces is fibred twice over the Teichmuller space H of hyperelliptic ones. Both fibre bundles π_1,π_2:T->H are real algebraic (rational). They define an embedding T->HxH. In addition, we indicate slight modifications of the proof of [ABG, Theorem 5.1] providing an elementary proof of Toledo's rigidity theorem.
Thurston's boundary to the universal Teichmüller space $T(\mathbb{H})$ is the set of asymptotic rays to the embedding of $T(\mathbb{H})$ in the space of geodesic currents; the boundary is identified with the projective bounded measured laminations $PML_{bdd}(\mathbb{H})$ of $\mathbb{H}$. We prove that each Teichmüller geodesic ray in $T(\mathbb{H})$ has a unique limit point in Thurston's boundary to $T(\mathbb{H})$ unlike in the case of closed surfaces.
In this paper we study the convergence behavior of grafting rays to the Thurston boundary of Teichmuller space. When the grafting is done along a weighted system of simple closed curves or along a maximal uniquely ergodic lamination this behavior is the same as for Teichmuller geodesics and lines of minima. We also show that the ray grafted along a weighted system of simple closed curves is at bounded distance from Teichmuller geodesic.
We prove a quantitative estimate with a power saving error term for the number of filling closed geodesics of a given topological type and length $\leq L$ on an arbitrary closed, orientable, negatively curved surface. More generally, we prove estimates of the same kind for the number of free homotopy classes of filling closed curves of a given topological type on a closed, orientable surface whose geometric intersection number with respect to a given filling geodesic current is $\leq L$. The proofs rely on recent progress made on the study of the effective dynamics of the mapping class group o…
We define and study metrics and weak metrics on the Teichmueller space of a surface of topologically finite type with boundary. These metrics and weak metrics are associated to the hyperbolic length spectrum of simple closed curves and of properly embedded arcs in the surface. We give a comparison between the defined metrics on regions of Teichmueller space which we call $\varepsilon_0$-relative $ε$-thick parts} for $ε>0$ and $\varepsilon_0\geq ε>0$.
We prove a quantitative estimate, with a power saving error term, for the number of simple closed geodesics of length at most $L$ on a compact surface equipped with a Riemannian metric of negative curvature. The proof relies on the exponential mixing rate for the Teichmüller geodesic flow.
We prove, for any n, that there is a closed connected orientable surface S so that the hyperbolic space H^n almost-isometrically embeds into the Teichmüller space of S, with quasi-convex image lying in the thick part. As a consequence, H^n quasi-isometrically embeds in the curve complex of S.
