The Weil-Petersson visual sphere (Q2574972)

Let \(S = S_{g, n}\) be a compact surface of negative Euler-characteristic, of genus \(g,\) and with \(n\) boundary components. Its Teichmüller space \(T(S)\) carries various natural metrics, and for each metric comparisons and analogies are often drawn with the hyperbolic space of the same dimension. The Weil-Petersson metric is a Riemannian metric on \(T(S)\) of variable negative curvature. The hyperbolic space \(H^{n}\) is compactified by the space of infinite geodesic rays emanating from a given point \(x \in H^{n},\) its visual sphere. Likewise, each point \(X \in T(S)\) has a Weil-Petersson visual sphere, although some geodesic rays emanating from \(X\) leave \(T(S)\) in finite time. Nevertheless, geodesic convexity guarantees that the space of such rays compactifies \(T(S).\) In this paper the author gives an initial description of this compactification and its interaction with more well-known phenomena in Teichmüller theory, particularly those arising in an analogous compactification due to L. Bers. Theorem 1.1. (Noncontinuity of the Modular group action). If \(S = S_{g, n}\) and \(3g - 3 + n \geq 2\) then the natural action of the mapping class group Mod\((S)\) on \(T(S)\) does not extend continuously to the Weil-Petersson visual sphere \(V_{X}(S).\) The theorem is analogous to results of S. Kerckhoff on the visual compactification by Teichmüller geodesic rays and to work of S. Kerckhoff and W. Thurston on Bers's compactification. Corollary 1.2. Thurston's compactification for Teichmüller space by the projective measured laminations \(PML(S) \cong^{6g+2n-7}\) is distint from the compactification of \(T(S)\) by the Weil-Petersson visual sphere: the identity map on \(T(S)\) does not extend to a homeomorphism from Thurston's boundary to the Weil-Petersson visual sphere. Theorem 1.4. The set of finite rays in \(V_{X}(S)\) in bijection with the frontier of \(\overline{T(S)}.\) Theorem 1.5. (Cusps are Dense). The finite rays are dense in the visual sphere \(V_{X}(S).\)