Hierarchical hyperbolicity, ball quotients, and the moduli space of smooth cubic surfaces

Abstract

We prove that the orbifold fundamental group of the moduli space of smooth complex cubic surfaces is a hierarchically hyperbolic group. This places it within a powerful geometric framework whose prototypical examples are mapping class groups. The proof uses a known incomplete complex hyperbolic metric on the moduli space, and applies in a broader setting which includes a number of other moduli spaces.

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