Handbook of Teichmuller Theory (IRMA Lectures in Mathematics and Theoretical Physics)

The TeichmÃÂ1⁄4ller space of a surface was introduced by O. TeichmÃÂ1⁄4ller in the 1930s. It is a basic tool in the study of Riemann's moduli spaces and the mapping class groups. These objects are fundamental in several fields of mathematics, including algebraic geometry, number theory, topology, geometry, and dynamics. The original setting of TeichmÃÂ1⁄4ller theory is complex analysis. The work of Thurston in the 1970s brought techniques of hyperbolic geometry to the study of TeichmÃÂ1⁄4ller space and its asymptotic geometry. TeichmÃÂ1⁄4ller spaces are also studied from the point of view of the representation theory of the fundamental group of the surface in a Lie group $G$, most notably $G=\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{R})$ and $G=\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{C})$. In the 1980s, there evolved an essentially combinatorial treatment of the TeichmÃÂ1⁄4ller and moduli spaces involving techniques and ideas from high-energy physics, namely from string theory. The current research interests include the quantization of TeichmÃÂ1⁄4ller space, the Weil-Petersson symplectic and Poisson geometry of this space as well as gauge-theoretic extensions of these structures. The quantization theories can lead to new invariants of hyperbolic 3-manifolds. The purpose of this handbook is to give a panorama of some of the most important aspects of TeichmÃÂ1⁄4ller theory. The handbook should be useful to specialists in the field, to graduate students, and more generally to mathematicians who want to learn about the subject. All the chapters are self-contained and have a pedagogical character. They are written by leading experts in the subject. A publication of the European Mathematical Society. Distributed within the Americas by the American Mathematical Society. This multi-volume set deals with Teichmüller theory in the broadest sense, namely, as the study of moduli space of geometric structures on surfaces, with methods inspired or adapted from those of classical Teichmüller theory. The aim is to give a complete panorama of this generalized Teichmüller theory and of its applications in various fields of mathematics. The volumes consist of chapters, each of which is dedicated to a specific topic. The present volume has 19 chapters and is divided into four parts: The metric and the analytic theory (uniformization, Weil-Petersson geometry, holomorphic families of Riemann surfaces, infinite-dimensional Teichmüller spaces, cohomology of moduli space, and the intersection theory of moduli space). The group theory (quasi-homomorphisms of mapping class groups, measurable rigidity of mapping class groups, applications to Lefschetz fibrations, affine groups of flat surfaces, braid groups, and Artin groups). Representation spaces and geometric structures (trace coordinates, invariant theory, complex projective structures, circle packings, and moduli spaces of Lorentz manifolds homeomorphic to the product of a surface with the real line). The Grothendieck-Teichmüller theory (dessins d'enfants, Grothendieck's reconstruction principle, and the Teichmüller theory of the soleniod). This handbook is an essential reference for graduate students and researchers interested in Teichmüller theory and its ramifications, in particular for mathematicians working in topology, geometry, algebraic geometry, dynamical systems and complex analysis. The authors are leading experts in the field