The moduli problem is to describe the structure of the spaceof isomorphism classes of Riemann surfaces of a giventopological type. This space is known as the modulispace and has been at the center of pure mathematics formore than a hundred years. In spite of its age, this fieldstill attracts a lot of attention, the smooth compact Riemannsurfaces being simply complex projective algebraic curves.Therefore the moduli space of compact Riemann surfaces is alsothe moduli space of complex algebraic curves. This space lieson the intersection of many fields of mathematics and may bestudied from many different points of view.The aim of thismonograph is to present information about the structure of themoduli space using as concrete and elementary methods aspossible. This simple approach leads to a rich theory andopens a new way of treating the moduli problem, putting newlife into classical methods that were used in the study ofmoduli problems in the 1920s.

Mapping class groups and moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces were the topics of the Graduate Summer School at the 2011 IAS/Park City Mathematics Institute. This book presents the nine different lecture series comprising the summer school, covering a selection of topics of current interest. The introductory courses treat mapping class groups and Teichmüller theory. The more advanced courses cover intersection theory on moduli spaces, the dynamics of polygonal billiards and moduli spaces, the stable cohomology of mapping class groups, the structure of Torelli groups, and arithmetic mapping class groups. The courses consist of a set of intensive short lectures offered by leaders in the field, designed to introduce students to exciting, current research in mathematics. These lectures do not duplicate standard courses available elsewhere. The book should be a valuable resource for graduate students and researchers interested in the topology, geometry and dynamics of moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces and related topics. Titles in this series are co-published with the Institute for Advanced Study/Park City Mathematics Institute. Members of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) receive a 20% discount from list price.

This monograph is a self-contained introduction to the geometry of Riemann Surfaces of constant curvature –1 and their length and eigenvalue spectra. It focuses on two subjects: the geometric theory of compact Riemann surfaces of genus greater than one, and the relationship of the Laplace operator with the geometry of such surfaces. Research workers and graduate students interested in compact Riemann surfaces will find here a number of useful tools and insights to apply to their investigations.

Provides a generally self-contained course for graduate students and postgraduates on deformations of hyperbolic surfaces and the geometry of the Weil-Petersson metric. It also offers an update for researchers; material not otherwise found in a single reference is included; and aunified approach is provided for an array of results.

This book is novel in its broad perspective on Riemann surfaces: the text systematically explores the connection with other fields of mathematics. The book can serve as an introduction to contemporary mathematics as a whole, as it develops background material from algebraic topology, differential geometry, the calculus of variations, elliptic PDE, and algebraic geometry. The book is unique among textbooks on Riemann surfaces in its inclusion of an introduction to Teichmüller theory. For this new edition, the author has expanded and rewritten several sections to include additional material and to improve the presentation.

This book provides an introduction to the main geometric structures that are carried by compact surfaces, with an emphasis on the classical theory of Riemann surfaces. It first covers the prerequisites, including the basics of differential forms, the Poincaré Lemma, the Morse Lemma, the classification of compact connected oriented surfaces, Stokes’ Theorem, fixed point theorems and rigidity theorems. There is also a novel presentation of planar hyperbolic geometry. Moving on to more advanced concepts, it covers topics such as Riemannian metrics, the isometric torsion-free connection on vector fields, the Ansatz of Koszul, the Gauss–Bonnet Theorem, and integrability. These concepts are then used for the study of Riemann surfaces. One of the focal points is the Uniformization Theorem for compact surfaces, an elementary proof of which is given via a property of the energy functional. Among numerous other results, there is also a proof of Chow’s Theorem on compact holomorphic submanifolds in complex projective spaces. Based on lecture courses given by the author, the book will be accessible to undergraduates and graduates interested in the analytic theory of Riemann surfaces.