MATH 722: Teichmüller Theory (Spring 2005)

Instructor: John Hubbard

Meeting Time & Room

The goal of this course is to understand the background of Teichmüller theory, hyperbolic geometry, and quasi-conformal mappings in order to see how these techniques are used to prove some subset of the following four theorems of Thurston:

1. Classification of homeomorphisms of surfaces
2. Classification of Rational Mappings
3. Hyperbolization of manifolds that fiber over the circle
4. Hyperbolization of Haken manifolds

This subset will be determined by those attending the course.

The primary resource for this course will be a book that Professor Hubbard is currently writing about these topics. This will be a seminar style course — those enrolled/attending will give 3 to 4 informal lectures on this material.

Prerequisites: MATH 612, 651, 652. It is strongly receommended that those interested read chapters one and two of this book prior to the first class. Please email Sarah Koch at kochs@math.cornell.edu if you are interested.

Last modified: November 24, 2004