Handbook Of Teichmuller Theory

This multi-volume set deals with Teichmuller theory in the broadest sense, namely, as the study of moduli space of geometric structures on surfaces, with methods inspired or adapted from those of classical Teichmuller theory. The aim is to give a complete panorama of this generalized Teichmuller theory and of its applications in various fields of mathematics. The volumes consist of chapters, each of which is dedicated to a specific topic. The volume has 19 chapters and is divided into four parts: The metric and the analytic theory (uniformization, Weil-Petersson geometry, holomorphic families of Riemann surfaces, infinite-dimensional Teichmuller spaces, cohomology of moduli space, and the intersection theory of moduli space). The group theory (quasi-homomorphisms of mapping class groups, measurable rigidity of mapping class groups, applications to Lefschetz fibrations, affine groups of flat surfaces, braid groups, and Artin groups). Representation spaces and geometric structures (trace coordinates, invariant theory, complex projective structures, circle packings, and moduli spaces of Lorentz manifolds homeomorphic to the product of a surface with the real line). The Grothendieck-Teichmuller theory (dessins d'enfants, Grothendieck's reconstruction principle, and the Teichmuller theory of the solenoid). This handbook is an essential reference for graduate students and researchers interested in Teichmuller theory and its ramifications, in particular for mathematicians working in topology, geometry, algebraic geometry, dynamical systems and complex analysis. The authors are leading experts in the field.

The Teichmuller space of a surface was introduced by O. Teichmuller in the 1930s. It is a basic tool in the study of Riemann's moduli spaces and the mapping class groups. These objects are fundamental in several fields of mathematics, including algebraic geometry, number theory, topology, geometry, and dynamics. The original setting of Teichmuller theory is complex analysis. The work of Thurston in the 1970s brought techniques of hyperbolic geometry to the study of Teichmuller space and its asymptotic geometry. Teichmuller spaces are also studied from the point of view of the representation theory of the fundamental group of the surface in a Lie group $G$, most notably $G=\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{R})$ and $G=\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{C})$. In the 1980s, there evolved an essentially combinatorial treatment of the Teichmuller and moduli spaces involving techniques and ideas from high-energy physics, namely from string theory. The current research interests include the quantization of Teichmuller space, the Weil-Petersson symplectic and Poisson geometry of this space as well as gauge-theoretic extensions of these structures. The quantization theories can lead to new invariants of hyperbolic 3-manifolds. The purpose of this handbook is to give a panorama of some of the most important aspects of Teichmuller theory. The handbook should be useful to specialists in the field, to graduate students, and more generally to mathematicians who want to learn about the subject. All the chapters are self-contained and have a pedagogical character. They are written by leading experts in the subject.

For several decades, Teichmuller theory has been one of the most active research areas in mathematics, with a very wide range of points of view, including Riemann surface theory, hyperbolic geometry, low-dimensional topology, several complex variables, algebraic geometry, arithmetic, partial differential equations, dynamical systems, representation theory, symplectic geometry, geometric group theory, and mathematical physics. This book is the fourth volume in a Handbook of Teichmuller Theory project that started as an attempt to present, in a most comprehensive and systematic way, the various aspects of this theory with its relations to all the fields mentioned. The handbook is addressed to researchers as well as graduate students. This volume is divided into five parts: Part A: The metric and the analytic theory Part B: Representation theory and generalized structures Part C: Dynamics Part D: The quantum theory Part E: Sources Parts A, B, and D are sequels to parts on the same theme in previous volumes. Part E contains the translation together with a commentary of an important paper by Teichmuller that is almost unknown, even to specialists. Making the original ideas of and motivations for a theory clear is crucial for many reasons, and making this translation, together with the commentary that follows, available will give readers a broader perspective on Teichmuller theory. The various volumes in this collection are written by experts who have a broad view on the subject. In general, the chapters are expository, while some of them contain new and important results.

The subject of this handbook is Teichmüller theory in a wide sense, namely the theory of geometric structures on surfaces and their moduli spaces. This includes the study of vector bundles on these moduli spaces, the study of mapping class groups, the relation with 3-manifolds, the relation with symmetric spaces and arithmetic groups, the representation theory of fundamental groups, and applications to physics. Thus the handbook is a place where several fields of mathematics interact: Riemann surfaces, hyperbolic geometry, partial differential equations, several complex variables, algebraic geometry, algebraic topology, combinatorial topology, low-dimensional topology, theoretical physics, and others. This confluence of ideas towards a unique subject is a manifestation of the unity and harmony of mathematics. The present volume contains surveys on the fundamental theory as well as surveys on applications to and relations with the fields mentioned above. It is written by leading experts in the fields. Some of the surveys contain classical material, while others present the latest developments of the theory as well as open problems. The metric and the analytic theory. The group theory. The algebraic topology of mapping class groups and moduli spaces. Teichmüller theory and mathematical physics. The handbook is addressed to graduate students and researchers in all the fields mentioned.

This volume is the fifth in a series dedicated to Teichmüller theory in a broad sense, including the study of various deformation spaces and of mapping class group actions. It is divided into four parts: Part A: The metric and the analytic theory Part B: The group theory Part C: Representation theory and generalized structures Part D: Sources The topics that are covered include identities for the hyperbolic geodesic length spectrum, Thurston's metric, the cohomology of moduli space and mapping class groups, the Johnson homomorphisms, Higgs bundles, dynamics on character varieties, and there are many others. Besides surveying important parts of the theory, several chapters contain conjectures and open problems. The last part contains two fundamental papers by Teichmüller, translated into English and accompanied by mathematical commentaries. The chapters, like those of the other volumes in this collection, are written by experts who have a broad view on the subject. They have an expository character (which fits with the original purpose of this handbook), but some of them also contain original and new material. The Handbook is addressed to researchers and to graduate students.

This multi-volume set deals with Teichmüller theory in the broadest sense, namely, as the study of moduli space of geometric structures on surfaces, with methods inspired or adapted from those of classical Teichmüller theory. The aim is to give a complete panorama of this generalized Teichmüller theory and of its applications in various fields of mathematics. The volumes consist of chapters, each of which is dedicated to a specific topic. The present volume has 19 chapters and is divided into four parts: The metric and the analytic theory (uniformization, Weil-Petersson geometry, holomorphic families of Riemann surfaces, infinite-dimensional Teichmüller spaces, cohomology of moduli space, and the intersection theory of moduli space). The group theory (quasi-homomorphisms of mapping class groups, measurable rigidity of mapping class groups, applications to Lefschetz fibrations, affine groups of flat surfaces, braid groups, and Artin groups). Representation spaces and geometric structures (trace coordinates, invariant theory, complex projective structures, circle packings, and moduli spaces of Lorentz manifolds homeomorphic to the product of a surface with the real line). The Grothendieck-Teichmüller theory (dessins d'enfants, Grothendieck's reconstruction principle, and the Teichmüller theory of the soleniod). This handbook is an essential reference for graduate students and researchers interested in Teichmüller theory and its ramifications, in particular for mathematicians working in topology, geometry, algebraic geometry, dynamical systems and complex analysis. The authors are leading experts in the field.

This book is a remarkable contribution to the literature on dynamical systems and geometry. It consists of a selection of work in current research on Teichmüller dynamics, a field that has continued to develop rapidly in the past decades. After a comprehensive introduction, the author investigates the dynamics of the Teichmüller flow, presenting several self-contained chapters, each addressing a different aspect on the subject. The author includes innovative expositions, all the while solving open problems, constructing examples, and supplementing with illustrations. This book is a rare find in the field with its guidance and support for readers through the complex content of moduli spaces and Teichmüller Theory. The author is an internationally recognized expert in dynamical systems with a talent to explain topics that is rarely found in the field. He has created a text that would benefit specialists in, not only dynamical systems and geometry, but also Lie theory and number theory.

There is an essentially ``tinker-toy'' model of a trivial bundle over the classical Teichmuller space of a punctured surface, called the decorated Teichmuller space, where the fiber over a point is the space of all tuples of horocycles, one about each puncture. This model leads to an extension of the classical mapping class groups called the Ptolemy groupoids and to certain matrix models solving related enumerative problems, each of which has proved useful both in mathematics and in theoretical physics. These spaces enjoy several related parametrizations leading to a rich and intricate algebro-geometric structure tied to the already elaborate combinatorial structure of the tinker-toy model. Indeed, the natural coordinates give the prototypical examples not only of cluster algebras but also of tropicalization. This interplay of combinatorics and coordinates admits further manifestations, for example, in a Lie theory for homeomorphisms of the circle, in the geometry underlying the Gauss product, in profinite and pronilpotent geometry, in the combinatorics underlying conformal and topological quantum field theories, and in the geometry and combinatorics of macromolecules. This volume gives the story a wider context of these decorated Teichmuller spaces as developed by the author over the last two decades in a series of papers, some of them in collaboration. Sometimes correcting errors or typos, sometimes simplifying proofs, and sometimes articulating more general formulations than the original research papers, this volume is self contained and requires little formal background. Based on a master's course at Aarhus University, it gives the first treatment of these works in monographic form.