A cell decomposition of Teichmüller space based on geodesic length functions (Q5937271)

In this paper, \(\mathcal M\) is a surface of genus \(g\) with \(n>0\) cusps, equipped with a metric of constant curvature \(-1\) and \(T(g,n)\) is the Teichmüller space of \(M\). Le \(m= \dim T(g,n) +1\) and let \(F\) be a set of free homotopy classes of closed curves in \(\mathcal M\) (represented by closed geodesics) such that the length function of \(F\) parametrize \(T(g,n)\) in the sense that if \(M\) and \(M'\) are elements of \(T(g,n)\) and if the lengths of all geodesics representing the elements of \(F\) are the same for \(M\) and \(M'\), then \(M=M'\). The author defines the set \(\text{cl(Min}(F))\) as the set of \(M\in T(g,n)\) such that for all \(M'\in T(g,n)\) with \(M'\not=n\), there exists \(u\in F\) such that \(u\) is strictly longer in \(M'\) than in \(M\). For \(M\in T(g,n)\), \(\text{Tan}(M)\) denotes the tangent space at \(M\) in \(T(g,n)\). For \(\xi\in \text{Tan}(M)\) and \(u\) a closed geodesic in \(M\), the author defines \(\xi(u)\) to be the real number which is the derivative induced by \(\xi\) of the length function associated to \(u\). He shows that for any \((g,n)\) surface \(\mathcal M\), we have: \(M\in \text{cl(Min}(F))\) if and only if there exists no \(\xi\in \text{Tan}(M)\) with \(\xi(u)>0\) for all \(u\in F\). He defines then the subset \(\text{Min}(F)\subset \text{cl(Min}(F))\) to be the set of \(M\in \text{cl(Min}(F))\) such that for every \(\xi\in \text{Tan}(M)\), either \(\xi(F)=0\) or there exists \(u,v\in F\) with \(\xi(u)>0\) and \(\xi(v)<0\). The author shows that \(cl(Min(F))\) is the union of the sets \(\text{Min}(F')\) with \(F'\subset F\) and \(F'\) fills up \(M\). He proves the following Theorem A. For all \(n>0\), it is possible to choose a set \(R({\mathcal M})\) of sets \(F\) such that \[ T(g,n)= \cup_{F_{0}}\text{Min}(F_0), \] where \(F_0\) fills up \(\mathcal M\) and \(F_0\subset F\in R({\mathcal M})\), and that this union is a disjoint union. Thus, this is a cell decomposition of \(T(g,n)\). The author gives some applications of this result. Let \(\Gamma'(g,n)\) be the extended mapping class group of \(M\) (that is, containing also the orientation reversing isotopy classes) and let \(G'_0(g,n)\) be the subgroup of \(\Gamma'_0(g,n)\) of elements which fix the cusp \(O\). Then the above cell-decomposition is invariant with respect to \(G'_0(g,n)\). In particular, it permits to obtain a finite presentation of \(G'_0(g,n)\). The author shows then Theorem B. For \(n\geq 4\), \(G'_0(0,n)\) is isomorphic to a quotient of the \([(n-2),(n-1),\infty]\) triangle group. The relations are provided by the subsets, which fill up, of regular sets with \(m-2=-1+\dim T(0,n)\) elements.