The concept of Riemann surfaces was introduced in Riemann's thesis, and the moduli space of Riemann surfaces was defined by Riemann in a masterpiece a few years later. Due to a broad connection with many subjects in mathematics and physics, Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces have been intensively studied and should continue to attract attention in years to come. Recently, there has been an explosion of interest in and work on tropical algebraic curves--analogues of algebraic curves over the complex numbers and hence of Riemann surfaces. This book is an accessible introduction to all these topics, with special emphasis given to their many connections with subjects such as algebraic geometry, complex analysis, hyperbolic geometry, topology, geometric group theory, and mathematical physics.

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.

Moduli Theory is one of those areas of Mathematics that has fascinated minds from classical to modern times. This has been so because it reveals beautiful Geometry naturally hidden in questions involving classification of geometric objects and because of the profound use of the methods of several areas of Mathematics like Algebra, Number Theory, Topology and Analysis to achieve this revelation. A study of Moduli Theory would therefore give senior undergraduate and graduate students an integrated view of Mathematics. The present book is a humble introduction to some aspects of Moduli Theory.

It concludes with a study of the canonical Galois action on the fundamental groupoids, computed using Grothendick-Teichmuller theory. Finally, Chapter 3 studies strict ribbon categories, which are closely related to braided tensor categories: here they are used to construct invariants of 3-manifolds which in turn give rise to quantum field theories."--BOOK JACKET.

The space of all Riemann surfaces (the so-called moduli space) plays an important role in algebraic geometry and its applications to quantum field theory. This book focuses on the study of topological properties of this space and of similar moduli spaces, such as the space of real algebraic curves, and the space of mappings.