An accessible, self-contained treatment of the complex structure of the Teichmüller moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces. Complex analysts, geometers, and especially string theorists (!) will find this work indispensable. The Teichmüller space, parametrizing all the various complex structures on a given surface, itself carries (in a completely natural way) the complex structure of a finite- or infinite-dimensional complex manifold. Nag emphasizes the Bers embedding of Teichmüller spaces and deals with various types of complex-analytic coördinates for them. This is the first book in which a complete exposition is given of the most basic fact that the Bers projection from Beltrami differentials onto Teichmüller space is a complex analytic submersion. The fundamental universal property enjoyed by Teichmüller space is given two proofs and the Bers complex boundary is examined to the point where totally degenerate Kleinian groups make their spectacular appearance. Contains much material previously unpublished.

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.

This book offers an easy and compact access to the theory of TeichmA1/4ller spaces, starting from the most elementary aspects to the most recent developments, e.g. the role this theory plays with regard to string theory. TeichmA1/4ller spaces give parametrization of all the complex structures on a given Riemann surface. This subject is related to many different areas of mathematics including complex analysis, algebraic geometry, differential geometry, topology in two and three dimensions, Kleinian and Fuchsian groups, automorphic forms, complex dynamics, and ergodic theory. Recently, TeichmA1/4ller spaces have begun to play an important role in string theory. Imayoshi and Taniguchi have attempted to make the book as self-contained as possible. They present numerous examples and heuristic arguments in order to help the reader grasp the ideas of TeichmA1/4ller theory. The book will be an excellent source of information for graduate students and reserachers in complex analysis and algebraic geometry as well as for theoretical physicists working in quantum theory.

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.

The Proceedings of the ICM publishes the talks, by invited speakers, at the conference organized by the International Mathematical Union every 4 years. It covers several areas of Mathematics and it includes the Fields Medal and Nevanlinna, Gauss and Leelavati Prizes and the Chern Medal laudatios.

The Teichmuller space of a surface was introduced by O. Teichmuller 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 Teichmuller theory is complex analysis. The work of Thurston in the 1970s brought techniques of hyperbolic geometry to the study of Teichmuller space and its asymptotic geometry. Teichmuller 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 Teichmuller and moduli spaces involving techniques and ideas from high-energy physics, namely from string theory. The current research interests include the quantization of Teichmuller 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 Teichmuller 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.

Offers a unified treatment of both the modern and the classical aspects of Teichmuller theory. The classical parts of the theory include Teichmuller's theorem on the existence and uniqueness of an extremal quasiconformal mapping in a given homotopy class of mappings between Riemann surfaces, the theorems of Bers and Ahlfors on the completeness of Poincare theta series for general Fuchsian groups and the approximation of integrable holomorphic functions in a domain by rational functions with simple poles on the boundary of the domain. The modern aspects of the theory include Ahlfors's and Bers's natural complex analytic coordinates for Teichmuller space, the infinitesimal theory of Teichmuller's metric and Kobayashi's metric, Royden's theorem that the only biholomorphic self-mappings of Teichmuller's space are induced by elements of the modular group (the action of which group is discontinuous), the Hamilton-Krushkal necessary condition for extremality, and Reich and Strebel's proof of sufficiency.