Teichmüller Theory

Abstract

This is a report on the workshop on Teichmüller theory held in Oberwolfach, from November 28 to December 4, 2010. The workshop brought together people working in various aspects of the field, with a focus on recent developments. The topics discussed included higher Teichmüller theory, moduli spaces of flat connections, cluster algebras, quantization of Teichmüller spaces, the dynamical aspects of the Teichmüller and Weil-Petersson geodesic flows, the metric and the boundary theory of Teichmüller space including the new developments on Thurston’s asymmetric metric, string topology, geometric analysis on moduli spaces, and relations with three-manifold topology and with minimal surface theory were also highlighted. The mapping class group was also discussed in detail, from various points of view, including its actions on simplicial complexes and on infinite-dimensional Teichmüller spaces, its asymptotic dimension, the relation with the arc operad, the generalizations of the Johnson homomorphisms to the monoid of homology cylinders, making contact with knot theory and with the Casson invariant and other 3-manifolds invariants. There was an open problem session, which is also reported on here.