Augmented Teichmüller spaces and orbifolds (Q5962310)

The authors study complex analytic properties of the augmented Teichmüller space \(\overline{T}_{g,n}\) obtained by adding to the classical Teichmüller space \(T_{g,n}\) points corresponding to Riemann surfaces with nodal singularities. Unlike \(T_{g,n}\), \(\overline{T}_{g,n}\) is not a complex manifold. The authors prove in this paper that the quotient of \(\overline{T}_{g,n}\) by any finite index subgroup of the mapping class group has a canonical structure of a complex orbifold. Using this structure, the authors construct natural maps from \(\overline{T}_{g,n}\) to stacks of admissible coverings of stable Riemann surfaces.