Variation of Hodge structure and enumerating tilings of surfaces by triangles and squares (Q2028048)

This remarkable paper studies volumes of moduli spaces of flat surfaces (in the sense of \(k\)-differentials on Riemann surfaces) and associated enumerative geometry for counting branched covers (corresponding to lattice points in the moduli spaces), with the aid of the Hodge metric on the tautological bundle of differentials. These objects are related as following. The periods of \(k\)-differentials with prescribed orders of zeros and poles induce a volume form on their moduli space. On the one hand, under the period coordinates certain branched covers of surfaces (e.g. tiled by squares, triangles and quadrangulations) correspond to lattice points in the moduli space for certain \(k\) (e.g. \(k = 1, 6, 4\)). Thus the large degree asymptotic of the Hurwitz numbers of such covers can determine the volume of the moduli space. On the other hand, when all period coordinates arise from the absolute part of the homology, the top power of the curvature form of the Hodge hermitian metric on the tautological bundle of differentials is proportional to the volume form up to a rational constant and an explicit power of \(\pi\). Note that the curvature form corresponds to the first Chern class of the bundle, whose top intersection number is rational (as these objects are often orbifolds). Using these observations and under the assumption that no relative periods are involved (i.e. no singularity order divisible by \(k\)), the authors prove the rationality behavior for the large degree asymptotic of enumeration of tilings of surfaces by triangulations and by quadrangulations (modulo an explicit power of \(\pi\)). Moreover for Abelian differentials (i.e. \(k=1\)), the authors prove a similar result for square-tiled surfaces in arithmetic absolutely rigid affine submanifolds (i.e. \(\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb R)\)-invariant submanifolds with no strictly relative periods). A technical issue one usually needs to justify is the extension of the hermitian metric to the boundary of a compactified moduli space. The authors bypass this difficulty by using \textit{J. Kollár}'s result [Adv. Stud. Pure Math. 10, 361--398 (1987; Zbl 0659.14024)] that any power of the curvature of the Hodge metric is a representative in the sense of currents of the corresponding power of the first Chern class of the extended line bundle.