Polyhedral surfaces in flat \((2 + 1)\)-spacetimes and balanced cellulations on hyperbolic surfaces (Q6986460)

The paper under review shows that given a Fuchsian representation \(\rho\) of the fundamental group of a closed surface \(S\), any flat metric on \(S\) with negative singular curvatures isometrically embeds as a convex polyhedral Cauchy surface in a unique future-complete flat globally hyperbolic maximal spacetime whose linear part of the holonomy is given by \(\rho\). Furthermore, given two such flat metrics on the surface, there exists a unique pair of future- and past-complete flat globally hyperbolic maximal spacetimes with the same holonomy, in which the flat metrics embed respectively as convex polyhedral Cauchy surfaces.\N\NThe proofs are based on the idea that the Gauss map of such polyhedral surfaces produces a balanced geodesic cellulation on the hyperbolic surface with holonomy \(\rho\). In particular, the second statement follows from convexity properties of the total length of the associated balanced geodesic cellulations over Teichmüller space.