Hyperbolicity in Teichmüller space (Q477458)

Let \(\mathcal{T}(S)\) be the Teichmüller space of a surface \(S\) of finite type. A Teichmüller geodesic \(\mathcal{G}:\mathbb{R}\to \mathcal{T}(S)\) is described as the image of a quadratic differential \(q\) on \(S\) under the Teichmüller geodesic flow. The author considers an inductive description of a Teichmüller geodesic. It is shown that for every proper subsurface \(Y\) of \(S\), there is an interval of time on which \(Y\) is isolated in the surface and the behavior of \(\mathcal{G}\) restricted to \(Y\) is like a geodesic in \(\mathcal{T}(Y)\), and outside of the interval, the projection of \(\mathcal{G}\) to the curve complex of \(Y\) moves by at most a bounded amount. The author also discusses the order of appearance of the interval. The author gives applications of this result to geometric problems in Teichmüller space. The first one is that Teichmüller geodesics do not backtrack in any subsurface, that is, the projection of a Teichmüller geodesic to the complex of curves of any subsurface \(Y\) of \(S\) is an unparametrized quasigeodesic in the curve complex of \(Y\). The second one is that if a Teichmüller geodesic segment \([x,y]\) whose endpoints \(x\) and \(y\) are in the thick part, then any other geodesic segment starting near \(x\) and ending near \(y\) fellow travels the segment \([x,y]\). It is also shown that the statement does not hold if the endpoints are not necessarily in the thick part. The third one is a thin-triangle property for Teichmüller geodesics, that is, for a geodesic triangle \(\triangle(x,y,z)\) in \(\mathcal{T}(S)\), the segment \([x,y]\) is close either to \([x,z]\) or \([y,z]\) provided that a large segment of \([x,y]\) is in the thick part.