The Velling-Kirillov metric of the universal Teichmüller curve (Q2565907)

The universal Teichmüller space \(T(1)\) studied in this paper can be described in several ways; one method is to consider univalent functions \(f\) on the unit disc \(\Delta\) which satisfy \(f(0)=0,f'(0)=1, f"(0)=0\) (normalization). The Schwarzian derivative \(S\) maps this space into the set \(A_{\infty}(\Delta)=\{\phi \text{ holomorphic on } \Delta, \sup | \phi(z)| (1-| z| ^{2})^{2} < \infty\). If for \(Q \in A_{\infty}(\Delta)\) we define \(f^{tQ}\) as a normalized solution of \(S(f^{tQ})=tQ\), which will exist for small \(t\), then it is an apparently unpublished result of J.Velling that the second derivative of \(A_{S}(f^{tQ}(\Delta))\) is positive; here \(A_{S}\) denotes the spherical area. One can use this to define a Hermitian metric on \(T(1)\). The universal curve over \(T(1)\) can be identified with a group of equivalence classes of homeomorphisms of the unit circle and it transpires that the Velling metric can also be defined on the universal Teichmüller curve and that this coincides with a construction of Kirillov inspired by his coadjoint orbit method. The author calls this metric the Vellin-Kirillov metric and the purpose of this paper is to give the construction in detail and to establish the fundamental properties of the metric. In particular the author determines the relationship between the Velling-Kirillov metric and the classical so-called Weil-Petersson metrics.