The Thurston boundary of Teichmüller space and complex of curves (Q861951)

Let \(S\) be a closed orientable surface of genus \(\geq 2\). Recall that the Bers constant of \(S\) is a positive real number \(L\) such that for any hyperbolic structure on \(S\), there exists a geodesic pants decomposition whose lengths are all bounded by \(L\). The existence of such a constant is due to Bers. Let \(\mathcal{T}\) be the Teichmüller space of \(S\), let \(\mathcal{PML}\) be the space of projective classes of measured laminations on \(S\), let \(\overline{\mathcal{T}}=\mathcal{T}\cup\mathcal{PMF}\) be the Thurston compactification of \(\mathcal{T}\), let \(\mathcal{UML}\) be the space of unmeasured laminations on \(S\) equipped with the quotient map \(u:\mathcal{PML}\to \mathcal{UML}\) obtained by forgetting transverse measures. Let \(\mathcal{EL}\) be the subspace of \(\mathcal{UML}\) consisting of classes of filling laminations, which has been shown by E. Klarreich to be homeomorphic to the Gromov boundary of the complex of curves \(C(S)\) of \(S\). In the paper under review, \(L\) is a fixed Bers constant for \(S\). The author defines a map \(\Phi\) on \(\mathcal{T}\) which associates to each \(\sigma\in \mathcal{T}\) a geodesic pants decomposition whose total length is bounded by \(L\), and he proves the following Theorem: Suppose that the sequence \(\sigma_i\) converges to an element \([\lambda]\in \mathcal{PML}\) in \(\overline{\mathcal{T}}\). Then, if \(\sigma_i\) is a sequence in \(\mathcal{T}\) such that \(\Phi(\sigma_i)\) converges to a geodesic lamination \(\nu\) in the Hausdorff metric topology, then \(u([\lambda])\subset \nu\). Furthermore, if \(\lambda\) is a filling lamination, then each pants curve in \(\Phi(\sigma_i)\) converges to \(u([\lambda])\) in \(C(S)\cup \mathcal{EL}\).