9 februari 2006, Moon Duchin (University of California, Davis): Random moves in the space of metrics

Abstract. For a fixed topological surface, the Teichmuller space is a parameter space for its possible metrics. These are considered up to conformal equivalence and with a "marking" by a choice of curves. I will discuss random walks in Teichmuller space where the moves are changes of marking. Adapting a geometric strategy from work of Karlsson-Margulis, I will show that sample paths for this random walk are tracked by geodesics in the Teichmuller space, which have a nice description as metric deformations.