Unification of extremal length geometry on Teichmüller space via intersection number (Q484364)

The author gives a new framework for the study the extremal length geometry of the Teichmüller space, namely, interpreting it in terms of an intersection number. The extremal length compactification of the Teichmüller space, that is, the space union its Gardiner-Masur boundary, is embedded in a certain cone in the space of functions of simple closed curves. This cone is the inverse image of the compactification in the way it was initially defined by Gardiner and Masur. The space of measured foliations on the surface sits naturally into that cone, as a subset of the boundary. The author first extends the intersection function between measured foliations to the whole cone, and he shows that the restrictions of this extended function to elements of the Teichmüller space is given by an explicit formula in terms of the Gromov product with respect to the Teichmüller distance. He uses this to show that the Gromov product extends continuously to the compactification. He then obtains a new proof of Royden's theorem saying that the isometry group of the Teichmüller space is the extended mapping class group. He also obtains a new description of the Teichmüller space equipped with the Teichmüller distance as a hyperboloid in some vector space. The paper contains new interesting ideas.