The distribution of critical graphs of Jenkins-Strebel differentials

Abstract

By work of Jenkins and Strebel, given a Riemann surface X and a simple closed multi-curve $\alpha$ on it, there exists a unique quadratic differential q on X whose horizontal foliation is measure equivalent to $\alpha$. We study the distribution of the critical graphs of these differentials in the moduli space of metric ribbon graphs as the extremal length of the multi-curves goes to infinity, showing they equidistribute to the Kontsevich measure regardless of the initial choice of X.

33 pages, 3 figures. Comments welcome!

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