This is a survey of our recent results on the geometry of moduli spaces and Teichmuller spaces of Riemann surfaces appeared in math.DG/0403068 and math.DG/0409220. We introduce new metrics on the moduli and the Teichmuller spaces of Riemann surfaces with very good properties, study their curvatures and boundary behaviors in great detail. Based on the careful analysis of these new metrics, we have a good understanding of the Kahler-Einstein metric from which we prove that the logarithmic cotangent bundle of the moduli space is stable. Another corolary is a proof of the equivalences of all of the known classical complete metrics to the new metrics, in particular Yau's conjectures in the early 80s on the equivalences of the Kahler-Einstein metric to the Teichmuller and the Bergman metric.
We prove a Gauss-Bonnet theorem for (finite coverings of) moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces endowed with the McMullen metric. The proof uses properties of an exhaustion of moduli spaces by compact submanifolds with corners and the Gauss-Bonnet formula of Allendoerfer and Weil for Riemannian polyhedra.
We prove a gluing theorem for solutions of Hitchin's self-duality equations with logarithmic singularities on a rank-2 vector bundle over a noded Riemann surface representing a boundary point of Teichmüller moduli space.
The moduli space of holomorphic fiber bundles ${\cal M}_n(\Si)$ over a compact Riemann surface $\Si$ is considered. A formula for the regularised determinant and an other for the symplectic form at trivial bundle are proposed.
For a given smooth manifold, we consider the moduli space of Riemannian metrics up to isometry and scaling. One can define a preorder on the moduli space by the size of isometry groups. We call a Riemannian metric that attains a maximal element with respect to the preorder a maximal metric. Maximal metrics give nice examples of self-similar solutions for various metric evolution equations such as the Ricci flow. In this paper, we construct many examples of maximal metrics on Euclidean spaces.
We describe the topology of the moduli spaces of flat metrics for all the 3-dimensional closed manifolds. We give an algebraic description of the moduli spaces for the 4-dimensional closed flat manifolds with a single generator in their holonomy and, in some cases, also study their topology.
In this paper, we formulate a procedure to obtain a generalization of Milnor frames for left-invariant pseudo-Riemannian metrics on a given Lie group. This procedure is an analogue of the recent studies on left-invariant Riemannian metrics, and is based on the moduli space of left-invariant pseudo-Riemannian metrics. As one of applications, we show that any left-invariant pseudo-Riemannian metrics of arbitrary signature on the Lie groups of real hyperbolic spaces have constant sectional curvatures.
We compute the automorphism groups of the Dolbeault, de Rham and Betti moduli spaces for the multiplicative group ${\mathbb C}^*$ associated to a compact connected Riemann surface.
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.
On the thick part of the moduli space of Riemann surfaces, where there is a positive lower bound of the systole of the surface, we show that all Weil-Petersson Riemannian curvatures are bounded, independent of the genus of the surface.
These are notes on the theory of super Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces, aiming to collect results that are useful for a better understanding of superstring perturbation theory in the RNS formalism.
We consider the moduli space of the extremal Kähler metrics on compact manifolds. We show that under the conditions of two-sided total volume bounds, $L^{n\over2}$-norm bounds on $\Riem$, and Sobolev constant bounds, this Moduli space can be compactified by including (reduced) orbifolds with finitely many singularities. Most of our results go through for certain other classes of critical Riemannian metrics.
We study spaces and moduli spaces of Riemannian metrics with non-negative Ricci or non-negative sectional curvature on closed and open manifolds. We construct, in particular, the first classes of manifolds for which these moduli spaces have non-trivial rational homotopy, homology and cohomology groups. We also show that in every dimension at least seven (respectively, at least eight) there exist closed (respectively, open) manifolds for which the space and moduli space of Riemannian metrics with non-negative sectional curvature has infinitely many path components. A completely analogous statem…
In this note we show that the Riemann moduli spaces $M_{g, n}$ equipped with the Weil--Petersson metric are quantum ergodic for $3g+n \geq 4$. We also provide other examples of singular spaces with ergodic geodesic flow for which quantum ergodicity holds.
In this paper we study the smooth moduli space of closed Riemann surfaces. This smooth moduli is an infinite cover of the usual moduli space $\mathscr{M}_g$ of closed Riemann surfaces, and is identified with the Schottky space of rank $g.$ The main theorem of the paper is: Closed Riemann surfaces are uniformizable by Schottky groups of Hausdorff dimension less than one. This work seem to be the only paper in literature to study question of Riemann surface uniformization and its Hausdorff dimension. We develop new techniques of rational norm of homological marking of Riemann surface and, decomp…
We consider the moduli space of flat $SO(2n+1)$-connections (up to gauge transformations) on a Riemann surface, with fixed holonomy around a marked point. There are natural line bundles over this moduli space; we construct geometric representatives for the Chern classes of these line bundles, and prove that the ring generated by these Chern classes vanishes below the dimension of the moduli space, generalising a conjecture of Newstead.
We show the existence of a symplectic structure on the moduli space of the Seiberg-Witten equations on $Σ\times Σ$ where $Σ$ is a compact oriented Riemann surface. To prequantize the moduli space, we construct a Quillen-type determinant line bundle on it and show its curvature is proportional to the symplectic form.
In this note we quantize the usual symplectic (Kähler) form on the vortex moduli space by modifying the Quillen metric of the Quillen determinant line bundle.
For singular metrics, there is no Quillen metric formalism on cohomology determinant. In this paper, we develop an admissible theory, with which the arithmetic Deligne-Riemann-Roch isometry can be established for singular metrics. As an application, we first study Weil-Petersson metrics and Takhtajan-Zograf metrics on moduli spaces of punctured Riemann surfaces, and then give a more geometric interpretation of our determinant metrics in terms of Selberg zeta functions. We end this paper by proposing an arithmetic factorization for Weil-Petersson metrics, cuspidal metrics and Selberg zeta funct…
We construct the moduli space of r-jets at a point of Riemannian metrics on a smooth manifold. The construction is closely related to the problem of classification of jet metrics via differential invariants. The moduli space is proved to be a differentiable space which admits a finite canonical stratification into smooth manifolds. A complete study on the stratification of moduli spaces is carried out for metrics in dimension n=2.
In this article we show that any finite cover of the moduli space of closed Riemann surfaces of $g$ genus with $g\geq 2$ does not admit any complete finite-volume Hermitian metric of non-negative scalar curvature. Moreover, we also show that the total mass of the scalar curvature of any almost Hermitian metric, which is equivalent to the Teichmüller metric, on any finite cover of the moduli space is negative provided that the scalar curvature is bounded from below.
We determine the quantum cohomology of the moduli space of odd degree rank two stable vector bundles over a Riemann surface $Σ$ of any genus. This work together with dg-ga/9710029 prove that this quantum cohomology is isomorphic to the instanton Floer cohomology of the three manifold $Σ\times S^1$. (Note: There is some overlap with the previous paper: alg-geom/9711013).
We compute eta invariants of various Dirac type operators on circle bundles over Riemann surfaces via two approaches: an adiabatic approach based on the results of Bismut-Cheeger-Dai and a direct elementary one. These results, coupled with some delicate spectral flow computations are then used to determine the virtual dimensions of Seiberg-Witten finite energy moduli spaces on any 4-manifold bounding unions of circle bundles. This belated paper should be regarded as the analytical backbone of dg-ga/9711006. There, we indicated only what changes are needed to extend the methods of the present p…
We obtain a compactness result for various classes of Riemannian metrics in dimension four; in particular our method applies to anti-self-dual metrics, Kahler metrics with constant scalar curvature, and metrics with harmonic curvature. With certain geometric assumptions, the moduli space can be compactified by adding metrics with orbifold singularities. Similar results were obtained previously for Einstein metrics, but our analysis differs substantially from the Einstein case in that we do not assume any pointwise Ricci curvature bound.
The moduli space of solutions to the vortex equations on a Riemann surface are well known to have a symplectic (in fact Kähler) structure. We show this symplectic structure explictly and proceed to show a family of symplectic (in fact, Kähler) structures $Ω_{Ψ_0}$ on the moduli space, parametrised by $Ψ_0$, a section of a line bundle on the Riemann surface. Next we show that corresponding to these there is a family of prequantum line bundles ${\mathcal P}_{Ψ_0} $on the moduli space whose curvature is proportional to the symplectic forms $Ω_{Ψ_0}$.
It is known that every nonorientable surface $Σ$ has an orientable double cover $\tildeΣ$. The covering map induces an involution on the moduli space $\tilde{\M}$ of gauge equivalence classes of flat $G$-connections on $\tildeΣ$. We identify the relation between the moduli space $\M$ and the fixed point set of the moduli space $\tilde{\M}$. In particular, $\M$ is isomorphic to the fixed point set of $\tilde{\M}$ if and only if the order of the center of $G$ is odd. One important application is that we give a way to construct a minimal Lagrangian submanifold of the moduli space $\tilde{\M}$.
We study the spectral geometric properties of the scalar Laplace-Beltrami operator associated to the Weil-Petersson metric $g_{\mathrm{WP}}$ on $\mathcal M_γ$, the Riemann moduli space of surfaces of genus $γ> 1$. This space has a singular compactification with respect to $g_{\mathrm{WP}}$, and this metric has crossing cusp-edge singularities along a finite collection of simple normal crossing divisors. We prove first that the scalar Laplacian is essentially self-adjoint, which then implies that its spectrum is discrete. The second theorem is a Weyl asymptotic formula for the counting function…
We prove the equivalences of several classical complete metrics on the Teichmüller and the moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces. We use as bridge two new Kähler metrics, the Ricci metric and the perturbed Ricci metric and prove that the perturbed Ricci metric is a complete Kähler metric with bounded negative holomorphic sectional curvature and bounded bisectional and Ricci curvature. As consequences we prove that these two new metrics are equivalent to several famous classical metrics, which inlcude the Teichmüller metric, therefore the Kabayashi metric, the Kähler-Einstein metric and the McMulle…
We consider canonical symplectic structure on the moduli space of flat ${\g}$-connections on a Riemann surface of genus $g$ with $n$ marked points. For ${\g}$ being a semisimple Lie algebra we obtain an explicit efficient formula for this symplectic form and prove that it may be represented as a sum of $n$ copies of Kirillov symplectic form on the orbit of dressing transformations in the Poisson-Lie group $G^{*}$ and $g$ copies of the symplectic structure on the Heisenberg double of the Poisson-Lie group $G$ (the pair ($G,G^{*}$) corresponds to the Lie algebra ${\g}$).
In this paper we modify the coordinate construction in our previous paper on the universal moduli space of pair consisting of a Riemann Surfaces and a stable holomorphic bundles on the Riemann Surface, so as to produce a new set of coordinates, which are in fact K\" ahler coordinates on this universal moduli space. Further, we give a functional determinant formula for the Ricci potential of the universal moduli space.
The twistor space of the moduli space of solutions of Hitchin's self-duality equations can be identified with the Deligne-Hitchin moduli space of $λ$-connections. We use real projective structures on Riemann surfaces to prove the existence of new components of real holomorphic sections of the Deligne-Hitchin moduli space. Applying the twistorial construction we show the existence of new hyper-Kähler manifolds associated to any compact Riemann surface of genus $g\geq2$. These hyper-Kähler manifolds can be considered as moduli spaces of (certain) singular solutions of the self-duality equations.
In this article we first show that any finite cover of the moduli space of closed Riemann surfaces of genus $g$ with $g\geq 2$ does not admit any Riemannian metric $ds^2$ of nonnegative scalar curvature such that $ds^2 \succ ds_{T}^2$ where $ds_{T}^2$ is the Teichmüller metric. Our second result is the proof that any cover $M$ of the moduli space $\mathbb{M}_{g}$ of a closed Riemann surface $S_{g}$ does not admit any complete Riemannian metric of uniformly positive scalar curvature in the quasi-isometry class of the Teichmüller metric, which implies a conjecture of Farb-Weinberger.
We study holomorphic $(n+1)$-chains $E_n\to E_{n-1} \to >... \to E_0$ consisting of holomorphic vector bundles over a compact Riemann surface and homomorphisms between them. A notion of stability depending on $n$ real parameters was introduced in the work of the first two authors and moduli spaces were constructed by the third one. In this paper we study the variation of the moduli spaces with respect to the stability parameters. In particular we characterize a parameter region where the moduli spaces are birationally equivalent. A detailed study is given for the case of 3-chains, generalizing…
Let $(X,x_0)$ be any one--pointed compact connected Riemann surface of genus $g$, with $g\geq 3$. Fix two mutually coprime integers $r>1$ and $d$. Let ${\mathcal M}_X$ denote the moduli space parametrizing all logarithmic $\text{SL}(r,{\mathbb C})$--connections, singular over $x_0$, on vector bundles over $X$ of degree $d$. We prove that the isomorphism class of the variety ${\mathcal M}_X$ determines the Riemann surface $X$ uniquely up to an isomorphism, although the biholomorphism class of ${\mathcal M}_X$ is known to be independent of the complex structure of $X$. The isomorphism class of t…
In this short note we explain how to adapt the construction of two Riemannian metrics on the $\mathrm{SL}(3,\mathbb{R})$-Hitchin component to the deformation space of globally hyperbolic anti-de Sitter structures: the pressure metric and the Loftin metric (studied by Qiongling Li). We show that the former is degenerate and we characterize its degenerate locus, whereas the latter is nowhere degenerate and the Fuchsian locus is a totally geodesic copy of Teichmüller space endowed with a multiple of the Weil-Petersson metric.
We show that the prequantum line bundle on the moduli space of flat $SU(2)$ connections on a closed Riemann surface of positive genus has degree 1. It then follows from work of Lawton and the second author that the classifying map for this line bundle induces a homotopy equivalence between the stable moduli space of flat $SU(N)$ connections, in the limit as $N$ tends to infinity, and $\mathbb{C}P^\infty$. Applications to the stable moduli space of flat unitary connections are also discussed.
A holomorphic triple over a compact Riemann surface consists of two holomorphic vector bundles and a holomorphic map between them. After fixing the topological types of the bundles and a real parameter, there exist moduli spaces of stable holomorphic triples. In this paper we study non-emptiness, irreducibility, smoothness, and birational descriptions of these moduli spaces for a certain range of the parameter. Our results have important applications to the study of the moduli space of representations of the fundamental group of the surface into unitary Lie groups of indefinite signature, whic…
The Weil-Petersson and Takhtajan-Zograf metrics on the Riemann moduli spaces of complex structures for an $n$-fold punctured oriented surface of genus $g,$ in the stable range $g+2n>2,$ are shown here to have complete asymptotic expansions in terms of Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates at the exceptional divisors of the Knudsen-Deligne-Mumford compactification. This is accomplished by finding a full expansion for the hyperbolic metrics on the fibers of the universal curve as they approach the complete metrics on the nodal curves above the exceptional divisors and then using a push-forward theorem for…
We construct explicit geometric models for moduli spaces of semi-stable strongly parabolic Higgs bundles over the Riemann sphere, in the case of rank two, four marked points, arbitrary degree, and arbitrary weights. The mechanism of construction relies on elementary geometric and combinatorial techniques, based on a detailed study of orbit stability of (in general non-reductive) bundle automorphism groups on certain carefully crafted spaces. The aforementioned techniques are not exclusive to the case we examine, and this work elucidates a general approach to construct arbitrary moduli spaces o…
In this paper we continue our study on the canonical metrics on the Teichmüller and the moduli space of Riemman surfaces. We first prove the equivalence of the Bergman metric and the Carathéodory metric to the Kähler-Einstein metric, solving another old conjecture of Yau. We then prove that the Ricci curvature of the perturbed Ricci metric has negative upper and lower bounds, and it also has bounded geometry. Then we study in detail the boundary behaviors of the Kähler-Einstein metric and prove that it has bounded geometry, and all of the covariant derivatives of its curvature are uniformly bo…
Riemann surfaces are two-dimensional manifolds with a conformal class of metrics. It is well known that the harmonic action functional and harmonic maps are tools to study the moduli space of Riemann surfaces. Super Riemann surfaces are an analogue of Riemann surfaces in the world of super geometry. After a short introduction to super differential geometry we will compare Riemann surfaces and super Riemann surfaces. We will see that super Riemann surfaces can be viewed as Riemann surfaces with an additional field, the gravitino. An extension of the harmonic action functional to super Riemann s…
Let $S_g$ be a closed surface of genus $g$ and $\mathbb{M}_g$ be the moduli space of $S_g$ endowed with the Weil-Petersson metric. In this paper we investigate the Weil-Petersson curvatures of $\mathbb{M}_g$ for large genus $g$. First, we study the asymptotic behavior of the extremal Weil-Petersson holomorphic sectional curvatures at certain thick surfaces in $\mathbb{M}_g$ as $g \to \infty$. Then we prove two curvature properties on the whole space $\mathbb{M}_g$ as $g\to \infty$ in a probabilistic way.
In this paper we continue our study on the moduli spaces of flat G-bundles, for any semi-simple Lie group G, over a Riemann surface by using heat kernel and Reidemeister torsion. Formulas for intersection numbers on the moduli spaces over a Riemann surface with several boundary components, over non-orientable Riemann surfaces are obtained. Some general vanishing theorems about characteristic numbers of the moduli spaces are proved. We also extend our method to study Higgs moduli spaces, to introduce invariants for knots and 3-manifolds.
We prove formulas (found by Witten in 1992 using physical methods) for intersection pairings in the cohomology of the moduli space M(n,d) of stable holomorphic vector bundles of rank n and degree d (assumed coprime) on a Riemann surface of genus g greater than or equal to 2. We also use these formulas for intersection numbers to obtain a proof of the Verlinde formula for the dimension of the space of holomorphic sections of a line bundle over M(n,d).
Let ${\mathcal B}_g(r)$ be the moduli space of triples of the form $(X,\, K^{1/2}_X,\, F)$, where $X$ is a compact connected Riemann surface of genus $g$, with $g\, \geq\, 2$, $K^{1/2}_X$ is a theta characteristic on $X$, and $F$ is a stable vector bundle on $X$ of rank $r$ and degree zero. We construct a $T^*{\mathcal B}_g(r)$--torsor ${\mathcal H}_g(r)$ over ${\mathcal B}_g(r)$. This generalizes on the one hand the torsor over the moduli space of stable vector bundles of rank $r$, on a fixed Riemann surface $Y$, given by the moduli space of holomorphic connections on the stable vector bundle…
We produce an equality between the Gromov-Witten invariants of the moduli space M of rank two odd degree stable vector bundles over a Riemann surface $Σ$ and the Donaldson invariants of the algebraic surface $Σ\times P^1$. We discuss on to how extent the Quantum cohomology of M determines its Gromow-Witten invariants. Finally we find the isomorphism between the usual cohomology and the Quantum cohomology for the moduli space M over a Riemann surface of genus g=3.
Let $g$ be locally homogeneous (LH) Riemannian metric on a differentiable compact manifold $M$, and $K$ be a compact Lie group endowed with an $\mathrm {ad}$-invariant inner product on its Lie algebra $\mathfrak{k}$. A connection $A$ on a principal $K$-bundle $p:P\to M$ on $M$ is locally homogeneous if for any two points $x_1$, $x_2\in M$ there exists an isometry $φ:U_1\to U_2$ between open neighborhoods $U_i\ni x_i$ which sends $x_1$ to $x_2$ and admits a $φ$-covering bundle isomorphism preserving the connection $A$. This condition is invariant under the action of the automorphism group (gaug…
We study a Killing spinor type equation on spin Riemannian flows. We prove integrability conditions and partially classify those Riemannian flows $M$ carrying non-trivial solutions to that equation in case $M$ is a local Riemannian product, a Sasakian manifold or 3-dimensional.
We show that the moduli space of Riemannian metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature on certain quotients of Brieskorn varieties in dimension 5 has infinitely many path components. The same is true for the corresponding moduli space of positive Ricci curvature.
Given any compact Riemann surface $C$, there is a canonical meromorphic 2--form $\widehatη$ on $C\times C$, with pole of order two on the diagonal $Δ\, \subset\, C\times C$, constructed in \cite{cfg}. This meromorphic 2--form $\widehatη$ produces a canonical projective structure on $C$. On the other hand the uniformization theorem provides another canonical projective structure on any compact Riemann surface $C$. We prove that these two projective structures differ in general. This is done by comparing the $(0,1)$--component of the differential of the corresponding sections of the moduli space…
In this paper, the moduli space of singular unitary Hermitian--Einstein monopoles on the product of a circle and a Riemann surface is shown to correspond to a moduli space of stable pairs on the Riemann surface. These pairs consist of a holomorphic vector bundle on the surface and a meromorphic automorphism of the bundle. The singularities of this automorphism correspond to the singularities of the singular monopole. We then consider the complex geometry of the moduli space; in particular, we compute dimensions, both from the complex geometric and the gauge theoretic point of view.
In this paper, we will give a complete geometric background for the geometry of Painlevé $VI$ and Garnier equations. By geometric invariant theory, we will construct a smooth coarse moduli space $M_n^{\balpha}(\bt, \blambda, L) $ of stable parabolic connection on $\BP^1$ with logarithmic poles at $D(\bt) = t_1 + ... + t_n$ as well as its natural compactification. Moreover the moduli space $\cR(\cP_{n, \bt})_{\ba}$ of Jordan equivalence classes of $SL_2(\C)$-representations of the fundamental group $π_1(\BP^1 \setminus D(\bt),\ast)$ are defined as the categorical quotient. We define the Riemann…
This expository paper details the theory of rank one Higgs bundles over a closed Riemann surface X and their relationship to representations of the fundamental group of X. We construct an equivalence between the deformation theories of flat connections and Higgs pairs. This provides an identification of moduli spaces arising in different contexts. The moduli spaces are real Lie groups. From each context arises a complex structure, and the different complex structures define a hyper-Kaehlerstructure. The twistor space, real forms, and various group actions are computed explicitly in terms of th…
This survey provides an introduction to basic questions and techniques surrounding the topology of the moduli space of stable Higgs bundles on a Riemann surface. Through examples, we demonstrate how the structure of the cohomology ring of the moduli space leads to interesting questions of a combinatorial nature.
Moduli spaces of holomorphic disks in a complex manifold Z, with boundaries constrained to lie in a maximal totally real submanifold P, have recently been found to underlie a number of geometrically rich twistor correspondences. The purpose of this paper is to develop a general Fredholm regularity criterion for holomorphic curves-with-boundary, and then show how this applies, in particular, to various moduli problems of twistor-theoretic interest.
