A picture of moduli space (Q5961441)

The Teichmüller space \(T_g\), comprising all ``marked compact Riemann surfaces'' of genus \(g \geq 2\), can be realized as a contractible open domain in \({\mathbb{R}}^{6g-6}\). The Teichmüller modular group, denoted \(MCG_{g}\), acts proper discontinuously as a group of real-analytic automorphisms on this domain; the quotient, \(T_{g}/MCG_{g}\), is precisely the so-called ``moduli space'' which parametrizes biholomorphic isomorphism classes of Riemann surfaces of genus \(g\). The embedding of \(T_g\) in the real affine space arises by representing each marked Riemann surface by a marked Fuchsian group -- namely, every point of \(T_g\) corresponds to (an equivalence class of) a discrete and faithful representation of the fundamental group of a closed genus \(g\) surface into the real Möbius group, \(PSL(2, {\mathbb{R}})\). By identifying, in an almost canonical fashion, a set of generators for the Fuchsian group corresponding to every closed Riemann surface of genus \(g\), the author finds in this paper a fundamental domain, say \(D\), for the action of \(MCG_{g}\) on \(T_g\). The domain \(D\) is defined by a finite number of real-analytic inequalities (involving the trace-squares of words built out of these generating elements). In the case of \(g=2\), the Maskit fundamental domain in \({\mathbb{R}}^{6}\) is defined by \(45\) inequalities -- but the author states that owing to further research by D. Griffiths the number of defining inequalities can be reduced to \(27\).