Large genus bounds for the distribution of triangulated surfaces in moduli space

TL;DR

This paper investigates how triangulated surfaces are distributed in the moduli space of Riemann surfaces as the genus increases, providing bounds on their distribution within Teichmüller balls.

Contribution

It establishes upper and lower bounds for the number of triangulated surfaces in moduli space, showing they are well distributed in the large genus limit.

Findings

Number of triangulated surfaces in a Teichmüller unit ball is at most exponential in the number of triangles.

Triangulated surfaces are well distributed in moduli space as genus tends to infinity.

Distribution bounds are independent of genus, depending only on the number of triangles.

Abstract

Triangulated surfaces are compact Riemann surfaces equipped with a conformal triangulation by equilateral triangles. In 2004, Brooks and Makover asked how triangulated surfaces are distributed in the moduli space of Riemann surfaces as the genus tends to infinity. Mirzakhani raised this question in her 2010 ICM address. We show that in the large genus case, triangulated surfaces are well distributed in moduli space in a fairly strong sense. We do this by proving upper and lower bounds for the number of triangulated surfaces lying in a Teichm\"uller ball in moduli space. In particular, we show that the number of triangulated surfaces lying in a Teichm\"uller unit ball is at most exponential in the number of triangles, independent of the genus.