Relative shapes of thick subsets of moduli space (Q2804443)

Let \({\mathbf X}_g\) denote the subspace of the moduli space \({\mathcal M}_g\) of a closed, orientable surface of genus \(g \geq 2\) consisting of those hyperbolic surfaces whose systoles fill the surface (i.e., each component of the complement of the union of all systoles, or shortest non-trivial curves, is simply connected). In a preprint, Thurston proposed \({\mathbf X}_g\) as a candidate of a spine of moduli space \({\mathcal M}_g\) (a deformation retract of minimal dimension), but not much seems to be known on the geometry and topology of \({\mathbf X}_g\) (e.g., connectivity, contractibility, dimension). ``In this paper, in a first attempt to understand the ``shape'' of the set \({\mathbf X}_g\), we compare it metrically (asymptotically in \(g\)) with the set \({\mathbf Y}_g\) of trivalent surfaces, i.e., surfaces with a pants decomposition (determined by a trivalent graph) with all curves of lengths bounded above and below by positive constants independent of \(g\). As our main result, we find that the set \({\mathbf X}_g \cap {\mathbf Y}_g\) is metrically ``sparse'' in \({\mathbf X}_g\) (where we equip \({\mathcal M}_g\) with either the Thurston or the Teichmüller metric)''.NEWLINENEWLINEConcerning the ``shape'' of \({\mathcal M}_g\), \textit{K. Rafi} and \textit{J. Tao} [Duke Math. J. 162, No. 10, 1833--1876 (2013; Zbl 1277.32013)] proved that the diameter of the \(\epsilon\)-thick part \({\mathcal M}^\epsilon_g\) of \({\mathcal M}_g\), i.e., of surfaces with injectivity radius bounded from below by some \(\epsilon\), equals log(\(g\)) up to multiplicative constants not depending on \(g\), by metrically approximating \({\mathcal M}_g\) by the subset \({\mathbf Y}_g\) of trivalent surfaces. ``We first note that Rafi and Tao's result gives an obvious upper bound on the diameter of \({\mathbf X}_g\) since it is a compact subset of \({\mathcal M}^\epsilon_g\) for sufficiently small \(\epsilon\). A lower bound, matching asymptotically this upper bound, is implicit in examples that arise naturally from our results here''.