Bounded differentials on unit disk and the associated geometry

Abstract

For a harmonic diffeomorphism between the Poincaré disks, Wan showed the equivalence between the boundedness of the Hopf differential and the quasi-conformality. In this paper, we will generalize this result from quadratic differentials to $r$-differetials. We study the relationship between bounded holomorphic $r$-differentials and the induced curvature of the associated harmonic maps from the unit disk to the symmetric space $SL(r,\mathbb{R})/SO(r)$ arising from cyclic/subcyclic harmonic Higgs bundles. Also, we show the equivalences between the boundedness of holomorphic differentials and having a negative upper bound of the induced curvature on hyperbolic affine spheres in ${\mathbb{R}}^3$, maximal surfaces in ${\mathbb{H}}^{2,n}$ and $J$-holomorphic curves in ${\mathbb{H}}^{4,2}$ respectively. Benoist-Hulin and Labourie-Toulisse have previously obtained some of these equivalences using different methods.

34 pages. Comments are very welcome