Coarse density of subsets of moduli space (Q2115470)

In this paper, a subset of a (non-compact) metric space is coarsely dense if there exists a constant \(K\) such that every point in the larger space is within distance \(K\) from some point of the subset. In the paper under review, the authors prove that an algebraic subvariety of the moduli space of closed orientable surfaces is coarsely dense with respect to the Teichmüller metric if and only if the dimension of the subvariety coincides with that of the moduli space. They also prove a related result if the Teichmüller metric is replaced by the Thurston metric (with some appropriate sense for coarse density in this nonsymmetric setting): In this case the algebraic subvariety is coarsely dense if and only if the subvariety coincides with that of the moduli space. The proofs involve the Deligne-Mumford compactification of moduli spaces by stable Riemann surfaces. The authors apply this result to determine which strata of abelian differentials have a coarsely dense projection in moduli space. They prove a result on coarse density of projections of \(\mathrm{GL}(2,\mathbb{R})\)-orbit closures in the space of abelian differentials.