Lines of minima and Teichmüller geodesics

Abstract: For two measured laminations

u^{+}

and

u^{-}

that fill up a hyperbolizable surface

S

and for

t i n (- i n f t y, i n f t y)

, let

L_{t}

be the unique hyperbolic surface that minimizes the length function

e^{t} l (u^{+}) + e^{- t} l (u^{-})

on Teichmuller space. We characterize the curves that are short in

L_{t}

and estimate their lengths. We find that the short curves coincide with the curves that are short in the surface

G_{t}

on the Teichmuller geodesic whose horizontal and vertical foliations are respectively,

e^{t} u^{+}

and

e^{- t} u^{-}

. By deriving additional information about the twists of

u^{+}

and

u^{-}

around the short curves, we estimate the Teichmuller distance between

L_{t}

and

G_{t}

. We deduce that this distance can be arbitrarily large, but that if

S

is a once-punctured torus or four-times-punctured sphere, the distance is bounded independently of

t

.

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