The extension of the Weil-Petersson metric to the boundary of Teichmüller space (Q1238224)

Let \(S_O\) be a surface of genus \(g\) and \(\gamma_1,\ldots ,\gamma_p\) disjoint, nonhomotopic, noncontractible simple closed curves on \(S_O\). Let \(X_O\) be the Riemann surface with nodes which results from pinching each curve to a point. The boundary space \(\delta_{\gamma_1,\ldots ,\gamma_p}T_g\) is a (possibly product) Teichmüller space of complex dimension \(p'= 3g - 3- p\). Let \(\tau = (\tau_1, \ldots , \tau_p)\) be a parametrization of a neighborhood of \(X_O\), and \(t =(t_1,\ldots ,t_p)\). The pairs \((t,\tau )\in C^{3g-3}\) parametrize deformations of \(X_O\). With the notation \(s=(s_1,\ldots ,s_{3g-3})=(t,\tau )\), the metrics on the quotients are representated by \[ \sum_{i,j=1}^{3g-3} fg_{i \; \bar{j}}(s)ds_i\; \overline{ds}_j . \] It is proved that \(|g_{i\; \bar{j}}|\) are integrable functions for all \(i,j\). \(\tilde{T}_g\) is defined as the union of \(T_g\) and all its boundary spaces. For \(P,Q\in \tilde{T}_g\), \(d(P,Q)\) is by definition \(\mathrm{inf}_{\gamma}L(\gamma )\), where \(L(\gamma )\) is the length of the curve \(\gamma\) joining \(P\) and \(Q\). It is proved that \(d(.,.)\) defines a metric on consistent with the smallest topology for which the projections onto the quotients are continuous, and the restriction of \(d(.,.)\) to \(T_g\) is the Weil-Petersson metric. \(d(.,.)\) projects to a complete metric on the compactified moduli space.