arXiv research

Bordifications of hyperplane arrangements yield complexes with homotopy type of wedges of spheres.

We give a geometric interpretation of the maximal Satake compactification of symmetric spaces $X=G/K$ of noncompact type, showing that it arises by attaching the horofunction boundary for a suitable $G$-invariant Finsler metric on $X$. As an application, we establish the existence of natural bordifications, as orbifold…

Geometrically boundary of surface moduli space defined.

In this paper we answer positively a question raised by Kapovich and Leeb in a paper titled "Finsler bordifications of symmetric and certain locally symmetric spaces". Specifically, we show that for a finite-dimensional vector space with a polyhedral norm, its horofunction compactification is homeomorphic to the dual u…

For a compact surface $X_0$, Thurston introduced a compactification of its Teichmüller space $\mathcal T(X_0)$ by completing it with a boundary $\mathcal{PML}(X_0)$ consisting of projective measured geodesic laminations. We introduce a similar bordification for the Teichmüller space $\mathcal T(X_0)$ of a noncompact Ri…

We show that Margulis spacetimes without parabolic holonomy are topologically tame. A Margulis spacetime is the quotient of the $3$-dimensional Minkowski space by a free proper isometric action of the free group of rank $\geq 2$. We will use our particular point of view that the Margulis spacetime is a manifold-with-bo…

We study a new bordification of the decorated Teichmüller space for a multiply punctured surface F by a space of filtered screens on the surface that arises from a natural elaboration of earlier work of McShane-Penner. We identify necessary and sufficient conditions for paths in this space of filtered screens to yield …

Our monograph presents the foundations of the theory of groups and semigroups acting isometrically on Gromov hyperbolic metric spaces. Our work unifies and extends a long list of results by many authors. We make it a point to avoid any assumption of properness/compactness, keeping in mind the motivating example of $\ma…

We compare some natural triangulations of the Teichmüller space of hyperbolic surfaces with geodesic boundary and of some bordifications. We adapt Scannell-Wolf's proof to show that grafting semi-infinite cylinders at the ends of hyperbolic surfaces with fixed boundary lengths is a homeomorphism. This way, we construct…

Study the boundary of a space related to Outer space.

This survey is based on a series of lectures that we gave at MSRI in Spring 2015 and on a series of papers, mostly written jointly with Joan Porti. Our goal here is to: 1. Describe a class of discrete subgroups $Γ<G$ of higher rank semisimple Lie groups, which exhibit some "rank 1 behavior". 2. Give different character…

Let $\mathbf{E}$ be a flat Lorentzian space of signature $(2, 1)$. A Margulis space-time is a noncompact complete flat Lorentzian $3$-manifold $\mathbf{E}/Γ$ with a free holonomy group $Γ$ of rank $\mathbf{g}, \mathbf{g} \geq 2$. We consider the case when $Γ$ contains a parabolic element. We obtain a characterization o…

Let $\varphi :\mathbb{D}\to\mathbb{C}$ be an integrable holomorphic function on the unit disk $\mathbb{D}$ and $D_{\varphi}:\mathbb{D}\to T(\mathbb{D})$ the Teichmüller disk in the universal Teichmüller space $T(\mathbb{D})$. For a positive $t$ it is known that $D_{\varphi}(t)\to [μ_{\varphi}]\in PML_b(\mathbb{D})$ as …

The study quantifies geodesic divergence on Riemannian planes with bounded geometry.

Let $\mathcal T$ be the Teichmüller space of marked genus $g$, $n$ punctured Riemann surfaces with its bordification $\Tbar$ the {\em augmented Teichmüller space} of marked Riemann surfaces with nodes, \cite{Abdegn, Bersdeg}. Provided with the WP metric $\Tbar$ is a complete CAT(0) metric space, \cite{DW2, Wlcomp, Yam2…

Using Kontsevich's identification of the homology of the Lie algebra l_infty with the cohomology of Out(F_r), Morita defined a sequence of 4k-dimensional classes mu_k in the unstable rational homology of Out(F_{2k+2}). He showed by a computer calculation that the first of these is non-trivial, so coincides with the uni…