Convergence of the Weil–Petersson metric on the Teichmüller space of bordered Riemann surfaces

Abstract

Consider a Riemann surface of genus [Formula: see text] bordered by [Formula: see text] curves homeomorphic to the unit circle, and assume that [Formula: see text]. For such bordered Riemann surfaces, the authors have previously defined a Teichmüller space which is a Hilbert manifold and which is holomorphically included in the standard Teichmüller space. We show that any tangent vector can be represented as the derivative of a holomorphic curve whose representative Beltrami differentials are simultaneously in [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], and furthermore that the space of [Formula: see text] differentials in [Formula: see text] decomposes as a direct sum of infinitesimally trivial differentials and [Formula: see text] harmonic [Formula: see text] differentials. Thus the tangent space of this Teichmüller space is given by [Formula: see text] harmonic Beltrami differentials. We conclude that this Teichmüller space has a finite Weil–Petersson Hermitian metric. Finally, we show that the aforementioned Teichmüller space is locally modeled on a space of [Formula: see text] harmonic Beltrami differentials.