Universal Teichmüller space in geometry and physics

Abstract

Lipman Bers' universal Teichmüller space, classically denoted by $T(1)$, plays a significant role in Teichmüller theory, because all the Teichmüller spaces $T(G)$ of Fuchsian groups $G$ can be embedded into it as complex submanifolds. Recently, $T(1)$ has also become an object of intensive study in physics, because it is a promising geometric environment for a non-perturbative version of bosonic string theory. We provide a non-technical survey of what is currently known about the geometry of $T(1)$ and what is conjectured about its physical meaning.

25 pages, AMS-Tex

References in corpus (1)

• On the Tangent Space to the Universal Teichmuller Space

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