Riemann surfaces with boundary and natural triangulations of the Teichmüller space (Q2429776)

The aim of this paper is to compare two different ways of triangulating the Teich\-mül\-ler space \(\mathcal T(R, x)\) of conformal structures on a compact oriented surface \(R\) with distinct ordered marked points \(x = (x_1, \dots, x_n)\). Starting with \([f:R\to R']\in \mathcal T(R, x)\) and a collection of weights \[ \widetilde p= (\widetilde p_1,\dots,\widetilde p_n) \in \Delta^{n-1}\cong\mathbb P\big(\mathbb R_{\geq0}^n\big), \] both constructions produce a ribbon graph \(G\) embedded in the punctured surface \(\dot R = R \setminus x\) as a deformation retract, together with a positive weight for each edge. A suitable completion of the space of such weighted graphs can be identified with the topological realization of the arc complex \(\mathfrak A(R, x)\) via Poincaré-Lefschetz duality on \((R, x)\), which is the simplicial complex of (isotopy classes of) systems of (homotopically nontrivial, pairwise nonhomotopic) arcs that join couples of marked points and that admit representatives with disjoint interior. Thus, both constructions provide a \(\Gamma(R, x)\)-equivariant homeomorphism \(\mathcal T(R, x)\times\Delta^{n-1}\to |\mathfrak A^\circ(R,x)|\), where \(\Gamma(R,x)=\pi_0\text{Diff}_+(R,x)\) is the mapping class group of \((R, x)\) and \(\mathfrak A^\circ(R,x)\subset\mathfrak A(R,x)\) consists of proper systems of arcs \(A = \{\alpha_0,\dots,\alpha_k\}\), namely such that \(\dot R \setminus (\alpha_0\cup\cdots\cup\alpha_k)\) is a disjoint union of discs and punctured discs. In fact, properness of \(A\) is exactly equivalent to its dual ribbon graph being a deformation retract of \(\dot R\). The HMT construction (due to Harer, Mumford and Thurston) uses Strebel's result on existence and uniqueness of a meromorphic quadratic differential \(\varphi\) on a Riemann surface \(R\) with prescribed residues \(p\) at \(x\) to decompose \(\dot R\) into a disjoint union of semi-infinite \(|\varphi|\)-flat cylinders (one for each puncture \(x_i\) with \(\widetilde p_i > 0\)), that are identified along a critical graph \(G\) which inherits this way a metric. The length of each edge of \(G\) is its weight. The BEP construction (due to Bowditch-Epstein and Penner) uses the unique hyperbolic metric on the punctured Riemann surface \(\dot R\). Given a (projectively) decorated surface, that is, a hyperbolic surface \(\dot R\) with cusps plus a weight \(\widetilde p\in\Delta^{n-1}\), there are disjoint embedded horoballs of circumference \(\widetilde p_1, \dots,\widetilde p_n\) at the \(n\) cusps of \(\dot R\). Removing the horoballs, we obtain a truncated surface \(R^{\text{tr}}\) with boundary, on which the function ``distance from the boundary'' is well-defined. The critical locus of this function is a spine \(G\) embedded in \(R^{\text{tr}}\subset\dot R\) as a deformation retract and with geodesic edges, whose horocyclic lengths provide the associated weights. Both constructions share similar properties of homogeneity and real-analyticity, and they also enjoy some good compatibility with the Weil-Petersson symplectic structure on \(\mathcal T(R, x)\). In this paper, the author interpolates these two constructions using the Teichmüller space \(\mathcal T(S)\) of hyperbolic surfaces with geodesic boundary, where \(S\) is a surface with boundary endowed with a homotopy equivalence \(S\hookrightarrow\dot R\). The spine construction works perfectly on such surfaces, even when they are nodal, and it can be easily seen to reduce to the BEP case as the boundary lengths \(\underline p = (p_1, \dots, p_n) = r\underline{\widetilde p}\) become infinitesimal. Also, the Weil-Petersson Poisson structure can be explicitly determined, thus providing a generalization of Penner's formula. Thus, the limit \(r := p_1 +\dots + p_n\to 0\) is completely understood in terms of hyperbolic surfaces with cusps and Bers's augmented Teichmüller space. On the other hand, the comprehension of the limit \(r\to\infty\) involves flat surfaces and it shares some similarities with Thurston's compactification of the Teichmüller space. In fact, the space of proper arc systems \(|\mathfrak A^\circ(S)|\) naturally embeds in the space of projective measured laminations. From a symplectic point of view, the Weil-Petersson structure admits a precise limit as \(r\to\infty\), after a suitable normalization, which agrees with Kontsevich's piecewise linear symplectic form on \(|\mathfrak A^\circ(S)|\). To give a more geometric framework to these limiting considerations, the author produces a few different bordifications of the Teichmüller space \(\mathcal T(S)\) of a surface \(S\) with boundary, whose quotients by the mapping class group \(\Gamma(S)\) give different compactifications of the moduli space. A convenient bordification from the point of view of the Weil-Petersson Poisson structure is the extended Teichmüller space \(\widetilde{\mathcal T}(S)\); whereas the most suitable one for triangulations and spine constructions is the bordification of arcs \(\overline{\mathcal T}^a (S)\), whose definition looks a bit like Thurston's but with some relevant differences. It is reasonable to believe that carefully iterated blow-ups of \(\overline{\mathcal T}^a (S)\) along its singular locus would produce finer bordifications of \(\mathcal T(S)\) in the spirit of Looijenga. In order to link explicitly the HMT and BEP constructions, the author constructs a family of isotopic triangulations of \(\mathcal T(R,x)\times\Delta^{n-1}\), parametrized by \(r\in [0,\infty]\), that coincides with BEP for \(r = 0\) and with HMT for \(r =\infty\). In particular, it is proved that, for every complex structure on \(\dot R\) and every \((\widetilde p,r)\in\Delta^{n-1}\times [0, \infty]\), there exists a unique projective structure \(\mathcal P(\dot R, r\underline{\widetilde p})\) on \(\dot R\), whose associated Thurston metric has flat cylindrical ends (with circumferences \(r\underline{\tilde p}\)) and a hyperbolic core. Rescaling the lengths by a factor \(1/r\), one can recognize that at \(r\to\infty\), the hyperbolic core shrinks to a graph \(G\) and the metric on the grafted surface is of the type \(|\varphi|\), where \(\varphi\) is a Strebel differential. This result is restated in terms of infinite grafting at the ends of a hyperbolic surface with geodesic boundary, and the proof adapts arguments of Scannell-Wolf. Finally, the author shows that, for large \(r\), two results of Dumas for compact surfaces still hold. The first one says that, for \(r\) large, the Strebel differential \(\varphi\) is well-approximated in \(L_{\text{loc}}^1(\dot R)\) by the Hopf differential of the collapsing map associated to \(\mathcal P(\dot R, r\underline{\widetilde p})\), that is, the quadratic differential which is \(dz^2\) on the flat cylinders \(S^1\times [0,\infty)\) and zero on the hyperbolic part. The second result says that \(\varphi\) is also well-approximated by the Schwarzian derivative of the projective structure \(\mathcal P(\dot R, r\underline p)\).