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.
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.
We answer a question of Durham, Hagen, and Sisto, proving that a Teichmüller geodesic ray does not necessarily converge to a unique point in the hierarchically hyperbolic space boundary of Teichmüller space. In fact, we prove that the limit set can be almost anything allowed by the topology.
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 length spectrum metric and the arc-length spectrum metric are almost-isometric on the $ε_0$-relative part of Teichmuller spaces of surfaces with boundary.
In \cite{rigidity}, Luo introduced a $ψ_λ$ edge invariant which turns out to be a coordinate of the Teichmüller space of a surface with boundary. And he proved that for $λ\geq 0$, the image of the Teichmüller space under $ψ_λ$ edge invariant coordinate is an open cell. In this paper we verify his conjecture that for $λ<0$, the image of the Teichmüller space is a bounded convex polytope.
We study the convergence of earthquake paths and horocycle paths in the Gardiner-Masur compactification of Teichmüller space. We show that an earthquake path directed by a uniquely ergodic or simple closed measured geodesic lamination converges to the Gardiner-Masur boundary. Using the embedding of flat metrics into the space of geodesic currents, we prove that a horocycle path in Teichmüller space, induced by a quadratic differential whose vertical measured foliation is unique ergodic, converges to the Gardiner-Masur boundary and to the Thurston boundary.
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…
We consider a quotient space of the Bers boundary of Teichmüller space, which we call the reduced Bers boundary, by collapsing each quasi-conformal deformation space into a point. This reduced Bers boundary turns out to be independent of the basepoint, and the action of the mapping class group on the Teichmüller space extends continuously to this boundary. We show that every auto-homeomorphism on the reduced Bers boundary comes from an extended mapping class. We also give a way to determine the limit in the reduced Bers boundary up to some ambiguity for parabolic curves for a given sequence in…
The Dynnikov coordinate system puts global coordinates on the boundary of Teichmüller space of an $n$--punctured disk. We survey the Dynnikov coordinate system, and investigate how we use this coordinate system to study pseudo--Anosov braids making use of results from Thurston's theory on surface homeomorphisms.
We show that the Teichmüller space of a surface without boundary and with punctures, equipped with Thurston's metric is the limit (in an appropriate sense) of Teichmüller spaces of surfaces with boundary, equipped with their arc metrics, when the boundary lengths tend to zero. We use this to obtain a result on the translation distances for mapping classes for their actions on Teichmüller spaces equipped with their arc metrics.
A family of coordinates $ψ_h$ for the Teichmüller space of a compact surface with boundary was introduced in \cite{l2}. In the work \cite{m1}, Mondello showed that the coordinate $ψ_0$ can be used to produce a natural cell decomposition of the Teichmüller space invariant under the action of the mapping class group. In this paper, we show that the similar result also works for all other coordinate $ψ_h$ for any $h \geq 0$.
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…
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
Let $S$ be a closed orientable surface with genus $g\geq 2$. For a sequence $\s_i$ in the Teichmüller space of $S$, which converges to a projective measured lamination $[\lam]$ in the Thurston boundary, we obtain a relation between $\lam$ and the geometric limit of pants decompositions whose lengths are uniformly bounded by a Bers constant $L$. We also show that this bounded pants decomposition is related to the Gromov boundary of complex of curves.
Let $X_0$ be a complete borderless infinite area hyperbolic surface. We introduce Thurston's boundary to the Teichmüller space $T(X_0)$ of the surface $X_0$ using Liouville (geodesic) currents. Thurston's boundary to $T(X_0)$ is identified with the space $PML_{bdd}(X_0)$ of projective bounded measured laminations on $X_0$ which naturally extends Thurston's result for closed surfaces. Moreover, the quasiconformal mapping class group $MCG_{qc}(X_0)$ acts continuously on the closure $T(X_0)\cup PML_{bdd}(X_0)$.
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 boundary at infinity of the curve complex $\mathcal{C}(S)$ of a surface $S$ of finite type and the relative Teichmüller space $\mathcal{T}_{el}(S)$ obtained from the Teichmüller space by collapsing each region where a simple closed curve is short to be a set of diameter 1. $\mathcal{C}(S)$ and $\mathcal{T}_{el}(S)$ are quasi-isometric, and Masur-Minsky have shown that $\mathcal{C}(S)$ and $\mathcal{T}_{el}(S)$ are hyperbolic in the sense of Gromov. We show that the boundary at infinity of $\mathcal{C}(S)$ and $\mathcal{T}_{el}(S)$ is the space of topological equivale…
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.
Thurston's boundary to the universal Teichmüller space $T(\mathbb{D})$ is the space $PML_{bdd}(\mathbb{D})$ of projective bounded measured laminations of $\mathbb{D}$. A geodesic ray in $T(\mathbb{D})$ is of Teichmüller type if it shrinks vertical foliation of an integrable holomorphic quadratic differential. In a prior work we established that each Teichmüller geodesic ray limits to a multiple (by the reciprocal of the length of the leaves) of vertical foliation of the quadratic differential. Certain non-integrable holomorphic quadratic differential induce geodesic rays and we consider their …
Let $X_{0}$ be a complete hyperbolic surface of infinite type with geodesic boundary which admits a countable pair of pants decomposition. As an application of the Basmajian identity for complete bordered hyperbolic surfaces of infinite type with limit sets of 1-dimensional measure zero, we define an asymmetric metric (which is called arc metric) on the quasiconformal Teichmüller space $\mathcal{T}(X_{0})$ provided that $X_{0}$ satisfies a geometric condition. Furthermore, we construct several examples of hyperbolic surfaces of infinite type satisfying the geometric condition and discuss the r…
Let $X$ be an infinite geodesically complete hyperbolic surface which can be decomposed into geodesic pairs of pants. We introduce Thurston's boundary to the Teichmüller space $T(X)$ of the surface $X$ using the length spectrum analogous to Thurston's construction for finite surfaces. Thurston's boundary using the length spectrum of $X$ is a "closure" of projective bounded measured laminations $PML_{bdd} (X)$, and it coincides with $PML_{bdd}(X)$ when $X$ can be decomposed into a countable union of geodesic pairs of pants whose boundary geodesics $\{α_n\}_{n\in\mathbb{N}}$ have lengths pinched…
In this paper, we investigate the structure of the Gardiner-Masur boundary of Teichmuller space. Indeed, we will give a geometric description of boundary comparing to the Duchin-Leininger-Rafi compactification of the space of singular flat structures. We will obtain the coincidence between the Gardiner-Masur boundary and the Thurston boundary at the projective classes of uniquely ergodic measured foliations. We also study the action of the mapping class group on the Gardiner-Masur boundary and characterize the elements by fixed points. This paper has been withdrawn by the author. This paper wi…
For a compact surface $X_0$, Thurston introduced a compactification of its Teichmüller space $\mathcal T(X_0)$ by completing it with a boundary $\mathcal{PML}(X_0)$ consisting of projective measured geodesic laminations. We introduce a similar bordification for the Teichmüller space $\mathcal T(X_0)$ of a noncompact Riemann surface $X_0$, using the technical tool of geodesic currents. The lack of compactness requires the introduction of certain uniformity conditions which were unnecessary for compact surfaces. A technical step, providing a convergence result for earthquake paths in $\mathcal T…
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 Teich…
We study the Teichmüller metric on the Teichmüller space of a surface of finite type, in regions where the injectivity radius of the surface is small. The main result is that in such regions the Teichmüller metric is approximated up to bounded additive distortion by the sup metric on a product of lower dimensional spaces. The main technical tool in the proof is the use of estimates of extremal lengths of curves in a surface based on the geometry of their hyperbolic geodesic representatives.
Unlike the case of surfaces of topologically finite type, there are several different Teichmüller spaces that are associated to a surface of topological infinite type. These Teichmüller spaces first depend (set-theoretically) on whether we work in the hyperbolic category or in the conformal category. They also depend, given the choice of a point of view (hyperbolic or conformal), on the choice of a distance function on Teichmüller space. Examples of distance functions that appear naturally in the hyperbolic setting are the length spectrum distance and the bi-Lipschitz distance, and there are o…
In this paper we try to look at the compactification of Teichmuller spaces from a tropical viewpoint. We describe a general construction for the compactification of algebraic varieties, using their amoebas, and we describe the boundary via tropical varieties. When we apply this construction to the Teichmuller spaces we see that they can be mapped in a real algebraic hypersurface in such a way that the cone over the boundary is a subpolyhedron of a tropical hypersurface. We want to show how some properties of the boundary becomes straightforward if looked at from this point of view. For example…
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.
In this paper, we shall show that the metric boundary of the Teichmueller space with respect to the Teichmueller distance contains non-Busemann points when the complex dimension of the Teichmueller space is at least two.
We show that any element of the universal Teichmüller space is realized by a unique minimal Lagrangian diffeomorphism from the hyperbolic plane to itself. The proof uses maximal surfaces in the 3-dimensional anti-de Sitter space. We show that, in $AdS^{n+1}$, any subset $E$ of the boundary at infinity which is the boundary at infinity of a space-like hypersurface bounds a maximal space-like hypersurface. In $AdS^3$, if $E$ is the graph of a quasi-symmetric homeomorphism, then this maximal surface is unique, and it has negative sectional curvature. As a by-product, we find a simple characteriza…
This paper contains some results about Teichmüller spaces of non-orientable surfaces (Klein surfaces). We prove several theorems giving isomorphisms between deformation spaces of Klein surfaces. These results show the similarity between the deformation theory of Klein surfaces, and the theory of Riemann surfaces. We also use the results of I. Kra to give explicit examples of deformation spaces of compact Klein surfaces.
This is a commentary on Teichmüllers' paper "Veränderliche Riemannsche Flächen" (Variable Riemann Surfaces), published in 1944. This paper is the last one that Teichmüller wrote on the problem of moduli. At most places the paper contains ideas and no technical details. The author presents a completely new approach to Teichmüller space, compared to the approach he took in his first seminal paper "Extremale quasikonforme Abbildungen und quadratische Differentiale" and its sequel "Bestimmung der extremalen quasikonformen Abbildungen bei geschlossenen orientierten Riemannschen Flächen" in which he…
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.
Based on the action of the mapping class group on the space of measured foliations, we construct a new boundary of the mapping class group and study the structure of this boundary. As an application, for any point in Teichmuller space, we consider the orbit of this point under the action of the mapping class group and describe the closure of this orbit in the Thurston compactification and the Gardiner-Masur compactification of Teichmuller space. We also construct some new points in the Gardiner-Masur boundary of Teichmuller space.
We determine the asymptotic behaviour of extremal length along arbitrary Teichmüller rays. This allows us to calculate the endpoint in the Gardiner-Masur boundary of any Teichmüller ray. We give a proof that this compactification is the same as the horofunction compactification. An important subset of the latter is the set of Busemann points. We show that the Busemann points are exactly the limits of the Teichmüller rays, and we give a necessary and sufficient condition for a sequence of Busemann points to converge to a Busemann point. Finally, we determine the detour metric on the boundary.
We consider the quantum Teichmuller space of the punctured surface introduced by Chekhov-Fock-Kashaev, and formalize it as a noncommutative deformation of the space of algebraic functions on the Teichmuller space of the surface. In order to apply it in 3-dimensional topology, we put more attention to the details involving small surfaces.
We prove that the Teichmüller space of surfaces with given boundary lengths equipped with the arc metric (resp. the Teichmüller metric) is almost isometric to the Teichmüller space of punctured surfaces equipped with the Thurston metric (resp. the Teichmüller metric).
We investigate a metric structure on the Thurston boundary of Teichmüller space. To do this, we develop tools in sup metrics and apply Minsky's theorem.
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…
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.
We start by describing how ideal triangulations on a surface degenerate under pinching of a multicurve. We use this process to construct a homomorphism from the Ptolemy groupoid of a surface to that of a pinched surface which is natural with respect to the action of the mapping class group. We then apply this construction to the study of shear coordinates and their extension to the augmented Teichmüller space. In particular, we give an explicit description of the action of the mapping class group on the augmented Teichmüller space in terms of shear coordinates.
Given a compact orientable surface with finitely many punctures $Σ$, let $\Cal S(Σ)$ be the set of isotopy classes of essential unoriented simple closed curves in $Σ$. We determine a complete set of relations for a function from $\Cal S(Σ)$ to $\bold R$ to be the geodesic length function of a hyperbolic metric with geodesic boundary and cusp ends on $Σ$. As a conse quence, the Teichmüller space of hyperbolic metrics with geodesic boundary and cusp ends on $Σ$ is reconstructed from an intrinsic $(\bold QP^1, PSL(2, \bold Z))$ structure on $\Cal S(Σ)$.
A measured laminations on the universal hyperbolic solenoid $§$ is, by our definition, a leafwise measured lamination with appropriate continuity for the transverse variations. An earthquakes on theuniversal hyperbolic solenoid $§$ is uniquely determined by a measured lamination on $§$; it is a leafwise earthquake with the leafwise earthquake measure equal to the leafwise measured lamination. Leafwise earthquakes fit together to produce a new hyperbolic metric on $§$ which is transversely continuous and we show that any two hyperbolic metrics on $§$ are connected by an earthquake. We also esta…
The aim of this paper is to relate Thurston's metric on Teichmüller space to several ideas initiated by T. Sorvali on isomorphisms between Fuchsian groups. In particular, this will give a new formula for Thurston's asymmetric metric for surfaces with punctures. We also update some results of Sorvali on boundary isomorphisms of Fuchsian groups.
Extremal length is an important conformal invariant on Riemann surface. It is closely related to the geometry of Teichmuller metric on Teichmuller space. By identifying extremal length functions with energy of harmonic maps from Riemann surfaces to $\mathbb{R}$-trees, we study the second variation of extremal length functions along Weil-Petersson geodesics. We show that the extremal length of any measured foliation is a pluri-subharmonic function on Teichmuller space.
This paper extends the decorated Teichmüller theory developed before for punctured surfaces to the setting of ``bordered'' surfaces, i.e., surfaces with boundary, and there is non-trivial new structure discovered. The main new result identifies the arc complex of a bordered surface up to proper homotopy equivalence with a certain quotient of the moduli space, namely, the quotient by the natural action of the positive reals by homothety on the hyperbolic lengths of geodesic boundary components. One tool in the proof is a homeomorphism between two versions of a ``decorated'' moduli space for bor…
We prove that the Teichmüller space of surfaces of genus $\mathbf{g}$ with $\mathbf{p}$ punctures contains balls which are not convex in the Teichmüller metric whenever $3\mathbf{g}-3+\mathbf{p} > 1$.
We give an irreducible decomposition of the so-called local representations (see arXiv:0707.2151) of the quantum Teichmüller space $\mathcal{T}_q(Σ)$ where $Σ$ is a punctured surface of genus $g>0$ and $q$ is a primitive $N$-th root of unity with $N$ odd. As an application, we construct a family of representations of the Kauffman bracket skein algebra of the closed surface $\overlineΣ$.
We consider some metrics and weak metrics defined on the Teichmueller space of a surface of finite type with nonempty boundary, that are defined using the hyperbolic length spectrum of simple closed curves and of properly embedded arcs, and we compare these metrics and weak metrics with the Teichmüller metric. The comparison is on subsets of Teichmüller space which we call "$ε_0$-relative $ε$-thick parts", and whose definition depends on the choice of some positive constants $ε_0$ and $ε$. Meanwhile, we give a formula for the Teichmüller metric of a surface with boundary in terms of extremal l…
We investigate the representation theory of the polynomial core of the quantum Teichmuller space of a punctured surface S. This is a purely algebraic object, closely related to the combinatorics of the simplicial complex of ideal cell decompositions of S. Our main result is that irreducible finite-dimensional representations of this polynomial core are classified, up to finitely many choices, by group homomorphisms from the fundamental group of the surface to the isometry group of the hyperbolic 3--space. We exploit this connection between algebra and hyperbolic geometry to exhibit new invaria…
We study how the length and the twisting parameter of a curve change along a Teichmuller geodesic. We then use our results to provide a formula for the Teichmuller distance between two hyperbolic metrics on a surface, in terms of the combinatorial complexity of curves of bounded lengths in these two metrics.
We calculate the Euler characteristics of all of the Teichmuller curves in the moduli space of genus two Riemann surfaces which are generated by holomorphic one-forms with a single double zero. These curves can all be embedded in Hilbert modular surfaces and our main result is that the Euler characteristic of a Teichmuller curve is proportional to the Euler characteristic of the Hilbert modular surface on which it lies. The idea is to use techniques from algebraic geometry to calculate the fundamental classes of these Teichmuller curves in certain compactifications of the Hilbert modular surfa…
Given a measured geodesic lamination on a hyperbolic surface, grafting the surface along multiples of the lamination defines a path in Teichmuller space, called the grafting ray. We show that every grafting ray, after reparametrization, is a Teichmuller quasi-geodesic and stays in a bounded neighborhood of a Teichmuller geodesic. As part of our approach, we show that grafting rays have controlled dependence on the starting point. That is, for any measured geodesic lamination Lambda, the map of Teichmuller space which is defined by grafting along Lambda is L-Lipschitz with respect to the Teichm…
Let $S$ be a closed, oriented surface with a finite (possibly empty) set of points removed. In this paper we relate two important but disparate topics in the study of the moduli space $\M(S)$ of Riemann surfaces: Teichmüller geometry and the Deligne-Mumford compactification. We reconstruct the Deligne-Mumford compactification (as a metric stratified space) purely from the intrinsic metric geometry of $\M(S)$ endowed with the Teichmüller metric. We do this by first classifying (globally) geodesic rays in $\M(S)$ and determining precisely how pairs of rays asymptote. We construct an "iterated ED…
