Teichmüller theory and collapse of flat manifolds (Q1663357)

The authors study how flat manifolds and flat orbifolds can be deformed while keeping them flat and in particular, how they collapse and what are the possible limits. Preliminary facts about flat manifolds, flat orbifolds, Bieberbach theorems and the classification of flat 2-orbifolds are first recalled. Limits of closed flat manifolds are studied and the following theorem is proved: ``The Gromov-Hausdorff limit of a sequence of closed flat manifolds is a closed flat orbifold. Conversely, every closed flat orbifold is the Gromov-Hausdorff limit of a sequence of closed flat manifolds.'' In another section the authors present Teichmüller spaces and moduli spaces of flat metrics establishing an algebraic characterization. Examples of Teichmüller spaces are also discussed. The final section of the paper contains a classification of collapsed limits of flat 3-manifolds. It is also shown that every closed flat orbifold can be obtained by collapsing closed flat manifolds.