Maximal surfaces and the universal Teichmüller space (Q607645)

The authors prove that any element of the universal Teichmüller space is realized by a unique minimal Lagrangian diffeomorphism from the hyperbolic plane to itself. The proof uses maximal surfaces in the 3-dimensional anti-de Sitter space. They prove that, in \(AdS_{n+1}\), any subset \(E\) of the boundary at infinity which is the boundary at infinity of a space-like hypersurface bounds a maximal space-like hypersurface. In \(AdS_{3}\), if \(E\) is the graph of a quasi-symmetric homeomorphism, then this maximal surface is unique and has negative sectional curvature. As a by-product, the authors find a simple characterization of quasi-symmetric homeomorphisms of the circle in terms of 3-dimensional projective geometry.