Harmonic splittings of surfaces (Q5956085)

This article uses the theory of harmonic maps into metric spaces to give an alternative proof of the following theorem of \textit{J. Morgan} and \textit{J. P. Otal} [Comment. Math. Helv. 68, No. 2, 171-208 (1993; Zbl 0795.57009)] and \textit{R. K. Skora} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 9, No. 2, 605-616 (1996; Zbl 0877.57002)]: any minimal, small action of the fundamental group \(\Gamma\) of a surface \(S\) of genus \(\geq 2\) on an R-tree is dual to the lift of a measured foliation of \(S\) to its universal cover \(\widetilde S\). The proof proceeds as follows. Given a minimal, small action of \(\Gamma\) on an R-tree \(T\) there is a \(\Gamma\)-equivariant harmonic map \(f:\widetilde S\to T\). Associated to this is a holomorphic quadratic differential on \(S\) (the Hopf differential of \(f\)). This determines a measured foliation of \(\widetilde S\), whose leaf space \(R\) is an R-tree with the appropriate metric. By precomposing \(f\) with the inverse of the leaf map \(\widetilde S \to R\) one obtains a \(\Gamma\)-equivariant morphism of R-trees \(R\to T\). The final step is to show that this is an isometry.