text:
# Variation of the Liouville measure of a hyperbolic surface

## 1. Geodesic currents

Throughout the paper, $`S`$ will be a compact oriented surface. The results automatically extend to non-orientable surfaces by considering their orientation coverings, and also extend to surfaces with cusps through minor rephrasings of the arguments. As indicated in the introduction, a hyperbolic metric $`m`$ on $`S`$ defines a transverse measure $`L_m`$ for the geodesic foliation $``$ of $`T^1S`$. Recall that a transverse measure is the assignment of a Radon111Recall that a *Radon measure* is a measure defined on Borel sets which assigns finite mass to each compact subset. measure on each surface $`V`$ transverse to $``$, in a way which is invariant under the holonomy of $``$. Equivalently, a transverse measure locally is a measure on the space of leaves of $``$ in local charts for $`S`$, so that these measures agree when charts overlap.

Globally, the space of leaves of $`S`$ is not Hausdorff, so it is convenient to lift the situation to the universal covering $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$ of $`S`$. Lift the hyperbolic metric $`m`$ to a hyperbolic metric on $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$, which we will still denote by $`m`$. The geodesic foliation $`\stackrel{~}{}`$ of $`T^1\stackrel{~}{S}`$ defined by this metric projects to the geodesic foliation $``$ of $`T^1S`$. Because $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$ is simply connected and $`m`$ has negative curvature, every geodesic is globally length minimizing, and it follows that $`\stackrel{~}{}`$ has no recurrent leaves. As a consequence, the space of leaves of $`\stackrel{~}{}`$ is Hausdorff. This space of leaves is also the space $`G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$ of all oriented bi-infinite geodesics of $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$.

To work with $`G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$, it is convenient to consider the *circle at infinity* $`_{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}`$ of $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$. Recall that $`_{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}`$ is the quotient of the set of geodesic rays of $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$ under the equivalence relation which identifies two rays when they stay at bounded distance from each other. If we pick a base point $`O`$ in $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$, each equivalence class has a unique representative among the geodesic rays issued from $`O`$, which identifies $`_{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}`$ to the unit tangent space $`T_O^1\stackrel{~}{S}`$. In particular, this identification $`_{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}T_O^1\stackrel{~}{S}`$ defines a metric on $`_{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}`$, the *angle metric* based at $`O`$.

Every geodesic of $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$ has two distinct end points on the circle at infinity $`_{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}`$, and any couple of distinct points of $`_{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}`$ is obtained in this way. This identifies the space $`G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$ of oriented geodesics of $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$ to the open annulus $`_{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}\times _{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}\mathrm{\Delta }`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ denotes the diagonal.

A *measure geodesic current* on $`S`$, namely a transverse measure for the geodesic foliation $``$ in $`T^1S`$, lifts to a transverse measure for the geodesic foliation $`\stackrel{~}{}`$ in $`T^1\stackrel{~}{S}`$. It globally defines a measure on the space $`G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)=_{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}\times _{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}\mathrm{\Delta }`$ of leaves of $`\stackrel{~}{}`$, since no leaf of $`\stackrel{~}{}`$ is recurrent. Note that this measure is invariant under the natural action of the fundamental group $`\pi _1(S)`$. This identifies the space $`𝒞(S)`$ of measure geodesic currents to the space of $`\pi _1(S)`$–invariant measures on $`G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$.

If one replaces the metric $`m`$ by another hyperbolic metric $`m^{}`$ on $`S`$ and the base point $`O`$ by another point $`O^{}\stackrel{~}{S}`$, every $`m^{}`$–geodesic ray issued from $`O^{}`$ in $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$ is quasi-geodesic for $`m`$, and therefore stays at bounded distance from a unique $`m`$–geodesic ray issued from $`O`$. This shows that the circle at infinity $`_{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}`$ is actually independent of the hyperbolic metric $`m`$. In addition, from the quasi-geodesic property and from easy curvature estimates, the two angle metrics $`d`$ and $`d^{}`$ on $`_{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}`$ which are respectively associated to $`m`$ and the base point $`O`$ and to $`m^{}`$ and the base point $`O^{}`$ are *Hölder equivalent* in the following sense: There exists constants $`C>0`$ and $`\nu >0`$ such that

$$\frac{1}{C}d(x,y)^{\frac{1}{\nu }}d^{}(x,y)Cd(x,y)^\nu $$

for every $`x`$, $`y_{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}`$. See also \[Gr, §7.2\] or \[KH, §19.1\]. In particular, $`G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)=_{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}\times _{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}\mathrm{\Delta }`$ inherits from the angle metric of $`_{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}`$ a natural metric well-defined up to Hölder equivalence, and for which the action of the fundamental group $`\pi _1(S)`$ is Hölder continuous.

If $`K`$ is a compact subset of $`G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$ and if $`\nu >0`$, let $`H_K^\nu \left(G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)\right)`$ be the set of all Hölder continuous functions $`\phi :G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$ with support contained in $`K`$ and with Hölder exponent $`\nu `$. Recall that $`\phi `$ is *Hölder continuous with Hölder exponent* $`\nu ]0,1]`$ when the norm

$$\phi _\nu =\underset{gG(\stackrel{~}{S})}{sup}\left|\phi (g)\right|+\underset{g,hG(\stackrel{~}{S})}{sup}\frac{\left|\phi (g)\phi (h)\right|}{d(g,h)^\nu }$$

is finite. Let $`H\left(G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)\right)`$ be the set of all the Hölder continuous functions with compact support on $`G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$, namely $`H\left(G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)\right)`$ is the union of all the $`H_K^\nu \left(G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)\right)`$ as $`K`$ ranges over all compact subsets of $`G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$ and $`\nu `$ ranges over all numbers in $`]0,1]`$. A *Hölder geodesic current* on $`S`$ is a linear map $`H\left(G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)\right)`$ which is invariant under the action of $`\pi _1(S)`$, and which is continuous in the sense that its restriction to each $`H_K^\nu \left(G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)\right)`$ is continuous for the norm $`_\nu `$. Note that this notion is independent of the choice of the negatively curved metric $`m`$ on $`S`$, because the distance $`d`$ on $`G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$ is well-defined up to Hölder equivalence.

Let $`(S)`$ denote the space of Hölder geodesic currents, endowed with the weak\* topology defined by the family of semi-norms $`\alpha \left|\alpha (\phi )\right|`$ as $`\phi `$ ranges over all the elements of $`H\left(G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)\right)`$.

## 2. The Liouville geodesic current

Let $`m𝒯(S)`$ be a hyperbolic metric on $`S`$. Then there is an orientation-preserving isometry $`\mathrm{\Theta }_m:\stackrel{~}{S}^2`$ between the universal covering $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$, endowed with the lift of $`m`$, and the hyperbolic plane $`^2`$. This isometry induces Hölder bicontinuous homeomorphisms $`_{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}_{\mathrm{}}^2`$ and $`G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)G\left(^2\right)`$ which, to avoid the proliferation of symbols, we will also denote by $`\mathrm{\Theta }_m`$.

Then the Liouville geodesic current is the measure $`L_m=\mathrm{\Theta }_m^{}\left(L_^2\right)`$ on $`G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$ which is the pull back by $`\mathrm{\Theta }_m`$ of the Liouville geodesic current $`L_^2`$ on $`G\left(^2\right)`$.

To compute $`L_^2`$, consider the Poincaré disk model for the hyperbolic plane $`^2`$, namely the open unit disk $`\{z;\left|z\right|<1\}`$ with the metric which at $`z`$ is $`2/\left(1|z|^2\right)`$ times the euclidean metric. Its circle at infinity $`_{\mathrm{}}^2`$ then is identified to the unit circle $`S^1`$. If $`x`$, $`yS^1`$, let $`h(x,y)`$ be the oriented geodesic of $`^2`$ going from $`x`$ to $`y`$. Then a simple computation (see \[Bo1, §A.2-3\]) shows that the Liouville measure $`L_^2`$ on $`G\left(^2\right)=S^1\times S^1\mathrm{\Delta }`$ coincides with the measure which is locally $`2dxdy/|xy|^2`$ at $`h(x,y)`$.

In the upper half-space model $`\{z;\mathrm{Im}(z)>0\}`$ for $`^2`$, the circle at infinity $`_{\mathrm{}}^2`$ corresponds to $`\{\mathrm{}\}`$. Then, the Liouville measure on $`G\left(^2\right)`$ coincides with the measure which is $`2dxdy/\left|xy\right|^2`$ at the geodesic $`h(x,y)`$ going from $`x`$ to $`y`$.

The reader should beware of a few minor differences with the setting of \[Bo1\]. The Liouville geodesic current $`L_m`$ considered here is twice that of \[Bo1\], to make it more directly related to the volume form of $`T^1S`$. Also, $`G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$ denotes here the space of *oriented* geodesics of $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$.

## 3. The shearing coordinates for Teichmüller space

We summarize here the basic properties of the shearing coordinates for Teichmüller space which we will need. We refer to \[Bo2\] for details.

These shearing coordinates are associated to the choice of a maximal geodesic lamination $`\lambda `$ on $`S`$. Recall that, for an arbitrary metric of negative curvature on $`S`$, a *geodesic lamination* is a closed subset of $`S`$ which can be decomposed as a union of disjoint complete geodesics which have no self-intersection points. Such a notion is actually a topological object, independent of the metric, in the sense that there is a natural identification between $`m`$–geodesic laminations and $`m^{}`$–geodesic laminations for any two negatively curved metrics $`m`$ and $`m^{}`$. A geodesic lamination is *maximal* if it is maximal for inclusion among all geodesic laminations, which is equivalent to the property that the complement $`S\lambda `$ consists of finitely many infinite triangles.

A fundamental example of a maximal geodesic lamination is obtained as follows. Start with a family $`\lambda _1`$ of disjoint simple closed geodesics decomposing $`S`$ into pairs of pants. Each pair of pants can be divided into two infinite triangles by three infinite geodesics spiralling around some boundary components. The union of $`\lambda _1`$ and of these spiralling geodesics forms a maximal geodesic lamination $`\lambda `$.

The shearing coordinates belong to the space $`(\lambda )`$ of *transverse cocycles* for the maximal geodesic lamination $`\lambda `$, namely of finitely additive signed transverse measures (valued in $``$) for $`\lambda `$. The vector space $`(\lambda )`$ has finite dimension $`3|\chi (S)|`$; see \[Bo4, Theorem 15\]. The analogy in notation between the space $`(\lambda )`$ of transverse cocycles for the geodesic lamination $`\lambda `$ and the space $`(S)`$ of Hölder geodesic currents on the surface $`S`$ is not a coincidence, because it is proved in \[Bo4\] that $`(\lambda )`$ is in a natural way a subspace of $`(S)`$; however, this is irrelevant here.

The shearing coordinates for Teichmüller space define an open embedding $`𝒯(S)(\lambda )`$ which associates to a hyperbolic metric $`m𝒯(S)`$ its *shearing cocycle* $`\sigma _m(\lambda )`$ \[Bo2, §2\]. It is proved in \[Bo2, Theorem A\] that this map defines a real analytic diffeomorphism from $`𝒯(S)`$ to an open subset of $`(\lambda )`$.

We will use a relatively explicit description of the inverse of the map $`m\sigma _m`$, as constructed in \[Bo2, §5\]. Let $`m_0𝒯(S)`$, let $`m`$ be another hyperbolic metric which is near $`m_0`$, and let $`\sigma _{m_0}`$, $`\sigma _m(\lambda )`$ be their respective shearing cocycles. Then the isometries $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}:(\stackrel{~}{S},m_0)^2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Theta }_m:(\stackrel{~}{S},m)^2`$ considered in Section 2 can be chosen so that the induced map $`\mathrm{\Theta }_m\mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}^1:_{\mathrm{}}^2_{\mathrm{}}^2`$ is of the type which we now describe. Unfortunately, this will require some care in the definitions as well as relatively cumbersome notation.

Use the isometry $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}`$ to identify the preimage $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ of $`\lambda `$ in $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$ to a geodesic lamination of $`^2`$, which we will also denote by $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$. Pick a base point $`O\stackrel{~}{S}^2`$ which is disjoint from $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$. This defines a partial order on the set of components of $`^2\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ which are different from the component $`T_O`$ containing $`O`$ where, for two such components $`T`$ and $`T^{}`$, $`T<T^{}`$ exactly when $`T`$ separates $`O`$ from $`T^{}`$.

Orient the leaves of $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ to the left, as seen from the base point $`O`$. For such a leaf $`g`$ and for $`a`$, let the *elementary earthquake*, or *elementary shearing map* $`E_g^a:^2g^2g`$ coincide with the identity on the component of $`^2g`$ that contains $`O`$ and with the hyperbolic translation of $`a`$ along the oriented geodesic $`g`$ on the other component of $`^2g`$. Note that, although $`E_g^a`$ does not continuously extend to $`^2`$, it has a continuous extension to a *homeomorphism* $`_{\mathrm{}}^2_{\mathrm{}}^2`$, which we also denote by $`E_g^a`$.

For a component $`T`$ of $`^2\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ which is not the component $`T_O`$ containing $`O`$, the boundary of $`T`$ consists of three leaves $`g_1^T`$, $`g_2^T`$ and $`g_3^T`$ of $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ since $`\lambda `$ is a maximal geodesic lamination. Choose the indexing so that $`g_1^T`$, $`g_2^T`$ and $`g_3^T`$ occur in this order as one goes counterclockwise around $`T`$, and so that $`g_3^T`$ is in the boundary of the component of $`^2T`$ that contains $`O`$. For $`a`$, define $`E_T^a=E_{g_3^T}^aE_{g_1^T}^aE_{g_2^T}^a`$.

Set $`\alpha =\sigma _m\sigma _{m_0}(\lambda )`$. Note that $`\alpha `$ also defines a transverse cocycle for $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$. If $`T`$ is a component of $`^2\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$, let $`\alpha (T)`$ be the number associated by this transverse cocycle to a geodesic arc joining the base point $`O`$ to an arbitrary point of $`T`$.

Let a *spanning family* of components of $`^2\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ be a finite family $`𝒰=\{U_1,U_2,\mathrm{},U_p\}`$ of components of $`^2\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ different from the component $`T_O`$ containing $`O`$ such that no two $`U_i`$ are comparable for $`<`$, namely such that no $`U_i`$ separates $`O`$ from another $`U_j`$. We will write $`T<𝒰`$ when $`T<U_i`$ for some $`U_i𝒰`$.

For such a spanning family $`𝒰`$, consider the infinite non-commutative product

$$E_𝒰^\alpha =\stackrel{}{\underset{T<𝒰}{}}E_T^{\alpha (T)}\underset{U𝒰}{}E_{g_3^U}^{\alpha (U)}$$

defined as the limit of

(1)
$$E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^\alpha =E_{T_1}^{\alpha (T_1)}E_{T_2}^{\alpha (T_2)}\mathrm{}E_{T_n}^{\alpha (T_n)}\underset{U𝒰}{}E_{g_3^U}^{\alpha (U)}$$

as the finite family $`\{T_1,T_2,\mathrm{},T_n\}`$ tends to the set of all $`TT_O`$ with $`T<𝒰`$ and where, for every $`i<j`$, either $`T_i<T_j`$ or $`T_i`$ and $`T_j`$ are not comparable (namely $`T_i<T_ji<j`$). Note that $`E_{T_i}^{\alpha (T_i)}`$ and $`E_{T_j}^{\alpha (T_j)}`$ commute when $`T_i`$ and $`T_j`$ are not comparable, so that the order does not matter in this case. For the same reason, the order is irrelevant in the product of the (finitely many) $`E_{g_3^U}^{\alpha (U)}`$ with $`U𝒰`$. The arrow on top of the first product symbol serves as a reminder that the terms must appear in an order compatible with the partial order $`<`$. The fact that the limit exists is proved in \[Bo2, §5\]. The set up in that paper is slightly different, but the restriction of $`E_𝒰^\alpha :^2\stackrel{~}{\lambda }^2`$ to a component $`T`$ of $`^2\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ coincides with what is called $`\phi _{T_0T}`$ in \[Bo2, §5\] if $`T<𝒰`$, with $`\phi _{T_0U_i}`$ if there is an $`U_i𝒰`$ such that $`U_i<T`$, and with the identity otherwise.

We now let the spanning family $`𝒰`$ *uniformly tend to infinity*, in the sense that the set $`\{T;T<𝒰\}`$ converges to the set of all components $`TT_O`$ of $`^2\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$. Then $`E_𝒰^\alpha `$ converges to a map

$$E^\alpha :^2\stackrel{~}{\lambda }^2$$

which coincides with a hyperbolic isometry on each component of $`^2\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$. The convergence is immediate from the fact that $`E_𝒰^\alpha `$ and $`E_𝒰^{}^\alpha `$ coincide on the component $`T`$ when $`T<𝒰`$ and $`T<𝒰^{}`$. The map $`E^\alpha `$ is the *shear map* associated to $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ and to the transverse cocycle $`\alpha `$.

In general, the shear map $`E^\alpha `$ has no continuous extension to $`^2`$. However, it conjugates the action of $`\pi _1(S)`$ on $`\stackrel{~}{S}^2`$ to a group $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ of isometries of $`^2`$ whose action is free and properly discontinuous; see \[Bo2, §5\]. As a consequence, $`E^\alpha `$ continuously extends to a homeomorphism $`E^\alpha :_{\mathrm{}}^2_{\mathrm{}}^2`$. The fact that $`\sigma _m=\sigma _{m_0}+\alpha (\lambda )`$ is the shearing cocycle of the metric $`m𝒯(S)`$ means that the isomorphism $`\pi _1(S)\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ defined by $`E^\alpha `$ can be realized by an isometry between $`(S,m)`$ and the quotient $`^2/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. In other words, the isometry $`\mathrm{\Theta }_m`$ can be chosen so that the homeomorphisms $`E^\alpha `$ and $`\mathrm{\Theta }_m\mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}^1:_{\mathrm{}}^2_{\mathrm{}}^2`$ coincide.

In addition, as $`𝒰`$ uniformly converges to infinity, the homeomorphism $`E_𝒰^\alpha :_{\mathrm{}}^2_{\mathrm{}}^2`$ uniformly converges to $`E^\alpha :_{\mathrm{}}^2_{\mathrm{}}^2`$.

The homeomorphisms $`E_g^a`$, $`E_T^a`$, $`E_𝒰^\alpha `$, $`E^\alpha `$ of $`_{\mathrm{}}^2`$ induce homeomorphisms of $`G\left(^2\right)=_{\mathrm{}}^2\times _{\mathrm{}}^2\mathrm{\Delta }`$, which we will denote by the same symbols.

## 4. Formal computations

Let $`tm_t`$, $`t]\epsilon ,\epsilon [`$, be a differentiable curve in the Teichmüller space $`𝒯(S)`$. We want to show that the derivative $`\frac{d}{dt}L_{m_t}_{|t=0}`$ exists as a Hölder geodesic current. Namely, for a Hölder continuous function $`\phi :G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$ with compact support, we want to show that the derivative

$$\frac{d}{dt}_{G(\stackrel{~}{S})}\phi 𝑑L_{m_t}_{|t=0}$$

exists and depends continuously on $`\phi `$.

Let $`\sigma _t(\lambda )`$ be the shearing cocycle associated to the hyperbolic metric, and set $`\alpha _t=\sigma _t\sigma _0(\lambda )`$. Then,

$$_{G(\stackrel{~}{S})}\phi 𝑑L_{m_t}=_{G(^2)}\phi \mathrm{\Theta }_{m_t}^1𝑑L_^2=_{G(^2)}\phi \mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}^1\left(E^{\alpha _t}\right)^1𝑑L_^2$$

where, as in Section 3, the homeomorphism $`E^{\alpha _t}:G\left(^2\right)G\left(^2\right)`$ is defined as the limit of the homeomorphisms

(2)
$$E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}=\stackrel{}{\underset{T<𝒰}{}}E_T^{\alpha _t(T)}\underset{U𝒰}{}E_{g_3^U}^{\alpha _t(U)}$$

as the spanning family $`𝒰`$ uniformly tends to infinity.

For a fixed component $`T`$ of $`\stackrel{~}{S}\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$, the number $`\sigma _t(T)`$ is a linear function of the transverse cocycle $`\sigma _t(\lambda )`$. Since the shearing cocycle $`\sigma _t`$ depends differentiably on the hyperbolic metric $`m_t`$, it follows that the derivative

$$\dot{\sigma }_0(T)=\frac{d}{dt}\sigma _t(T)_{|t=0}=\frac{d}{dt}\alpha _t(T)_{|t=0}$$

exists and depends only on $`T`$ and on the tangent vector $`\frac{d}{dt}m_t_{|t=0}T_{m_0}𝒯(S)`$.

If we formally differentiate the infinite product of Equation 2, we can expect that

(3)
$$\frac{d}{dt}_{G(^2)}\phi \mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}^1\left(E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}\right)^1𝑑L_^2_{|t=0}\text{?}=\underset{T<𝒰}{}\dot{\sigma }_0(T)C_0(\phi ,T)+\underset{U𝒰}{}\dot{\sigma }_0(U)C_0(\phi ,g_3^U)$$

where the question mark on the $`=`$ sign is here to remind us that this is only a conjectural formula, where the contribution of a geodesic $`gG\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$ is

(4)
$$C_0(\phi ,g)=\frac{d}{da}_{G(^2)}\phi \mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}^1\left(E_g^a\right)^1𝑑L_^2_{|a=0}$$

and where the contribution of a component $`T`$ of $`\stackrel{~}{S}\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ is

(5)
$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill C_0(\phi ,T)& =\frac{d}{da}_{G(^2)}\phi \mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}^1\left(E_T^a\right)^1𝑑L_^2_{|a=0}\hfill \\ & =C_0(\phi ,g_3^T)C_0(\phi ,g_1^T)C_0(\phi ,g_2^T)\hfill \end{array}$$

since $`E_T^a=E_{g_3^T}^aE_{g_1^T}^aE_{g_2^T}^a`$ by definition.

We will see that, as we let the spanning family $`𝒰`$ uniformly tend to infinity, the last term $`_{U𝒰}\dot{\sigma }_0(U)C_0(\phi ,g_3^U)`$ of Equation 3 vanishes in the limit. Therefore, the expected formula for the derivative of $`tL_{m_t}`$ is

(6)
$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \frac{d}{dt}_{G(\stackrel{~}{S})}\phi 𝑑L_{m_t}_{|t=0}=& \frac{d}{dt}_{G(^2)}\phi \mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}^1\left(E^{\alpha _t}\right)^1𝑑L_^2_{|t=0}\hfill \\ \hfill \text{?}=& \underset{T}{}\dot{\sigma }_0(T)C_0(\phi ,T)\hfill \end{array}$$

where the sum is over all components $`T`$ of $`\stackrel{~}{S}\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ that are different from the component $`T_O`$ containing the base point $`O`$.

The main technical point of our arguments is to prove that the infinite sums of Equations 6 and 3 do converge and, unlike the above formal computations, will strongly use the hypothesis that the function $`\phi `$ is Hölder continuous.

We first compute the derivative $`C_0(\phi ,g)`$ corresponding to the elementary earthquake along a single geodesic $`g`$. This will not require much regularity for $`\phi `$.

###### Lemma 2.

For an oriented geodesic $`gG\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$, let $`C_0(\phi ,g)`$ be defined by Equation 4. Then, for every continuous function $`\phi :G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$ with compact support,

(7)
$$C_0(\phi ,g)=_{G(\stackrel{~}{S})}\phi (h)\mathrm{cos}\theta (g,h)𝑑L_{m_0}(h)$$

where $`\theta (g,h)[0,\pi [`$ denotes the angle from $`g`$ to $`h`$ at their intersection point, measured counterclockwise for the metric $`m_0`$ and without taking the orientation of the geodesics into account, and where by convention $`\mathrm{cos}\theta (g,h)=0`$ if $`g`$ and $`h`$ do not meet.

###### Proof.

Before going any further, we will introduce a restriction on the function $`\phi `$ which will somewhat simplify the exposition. The Liouville measures $`L_m`$ are invariant under the involution $`r`$ of $`G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$ defined by reversing the orientation of the geodesics. As a consequence, the integral of $`\phi `$ for $`L_m`$ is equal to the integral of the symmetrized function $`(\phi +\phi r)/2`$. The same applies to the integral of Equation 7. We can therefore restrict attention to those functions $`\phi `$ which are *balanced* in the sense that they are invariant under the involution $`r`$.

Choose the isometric identification $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}:(\stackrel{~}{S},m_0)^2`$ so that, in the upper half-space model for $`^2`$, the oriented geodesic $`g`$ goes from the point $`0`$ to the point $`\mathrm{}`$. Then, on $`_{\mathrm{}}^2=\{\mathrm{}\}`$, the homeomorphism $`E_g^a`$ is such that $`E_g^a(x)=\mathrm{e}^ax`$ for $`x0`$ and $`E_g^a(y)=y`$ for $`y0`$. Since only those geodesics which cross $`g`$ contribute to the derivative, it follows that

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill C_0(\phi ,g)& =\frac{d}{da}_{G(^2)}\phi \mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}^1\left(E_g^a\right)^1𝑑L_^2_{|a=0}\hfill \\ & =4\frac{d}{da}_{\mathrm{}}^0_0^+\mathrm{}\phi \mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}^1\left(h(\mathrm{e}^ax,y)\right)\frac{dxdy}{\left(xy\right)^2}\text{m}_{|a=0}\hfill \\ & =4\frac{d}{da}_{\mathrm{}}^0_0^+\mathrm{}\phi \mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}^1\left(h(x,y)\right)\frac{\mathrm{e}^adxdy}{\left(\mathrm{e}^axy\right)^2}\text{m}_{|a=0}\hfill \\ & =4_{\mathrm{}}^0_0^+\mathrm{}\phi \mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}^1\left(h(x,y)\right)\frac{xy}{xy}\frac{dxdy}{\left(xy\right)^2}\hfill \end{array}$$

where $`h(x,y)`$ denotes the geodesic joining $`x`$ to $`y`$. Here the factor $`4`$ has two origins: one factor $`2`$ comes from the expression of the Liouville geodesic current in Section 2; another $`2`$ comes from the fact that we have to consider the two possible orientations for each geodesic crossing $`g`$, and that each orientation contributes the same amount by our assumption that $`\phi `$ is balanced. An elementary computation in hyperbolic geometry shows that the term $`\frac{xy}{xy}`$ is equal to the cosine of the angle from the geodesic $`g`$ joining $`0`$ to $`\mathrm{}`$ to the geodesic $`h(x,y)`$ joining $`x`$ to $`y`$. This concludes the proof. ∎

## 5. The main estimate

Throughout this section, $`S`$ is endowed with the hyperbolic metric $`m_0`$, and $`\lambda `$ is realized by an $`m_0`$–geodesic lamination. We pick a base point $`O\stackrel{~}{S}`$ which is disjoint from the preimage $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ of $`\lambda `$. Endow the circle at infinity $`_{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}`$ with the angle metric as seen from the point $`O`$, and the space $`G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)=_{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}\times _{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}\mathrm{\Delta }`$ of oriented geodesics of $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$ with the corresponding product metric. For a Hölder continuous function $`\phi :G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$, its Hölder norm $`\phi _\nu `$ will be computed with respect to this metric on $`G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$.

Consider a component $`T`$ of $`\stackrel{~}{S}\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ which is not the component $`T_O`$ containing the base point $`O`$. Let $`D_T`$ denote the distance from $`O`$ to $`T`$, namely the distance from $`O`$ to the point $`x_T`$ of the geodesic $`g_3^T`$ that is closest to $`O`$. Let $`y_T`$ be the orthogonal projection to $`g_3^T`$ of the vertex of the triangle $`T`$ that separates $`g_1^T`$ from $`g_2^T`$. Finally, let $`u_T`$ be the signed distance from $`x_T`$ to $`y_T`$ in the oriented geodesic $`g_3^T`$, namely $`\left|u_T\right|`$ is equal to the distance from $`x_T`$ to $`y_T`$ and $`u_T<0`$ exactly when $`y_T`$ is to the right of $`x_T`$ as seen from $`O`$.

The key ingredient of the proof of Theorem 1 is the following estimate for the quantity $`C_0(\phi ,T)`$ defined by Equation 5.

We write $`uv`$ when the ratio $`\left|u/v\right|`$ is bounded above by a constant, and we write $`uv`$ when both $`uv`$ and $`vu`$.

###### Proposition 3.

Let $`\phi :G(\stackrel{~}{S})`$ be a Hölder continuous function with Hölder exponent $`\nu `$, and such that every geodesic $`gG(\stackrel{~}{S})`$ in the support of $`\phi `$ meets the ball $`B(O,R)\stackrel{~}{S}`$. Then,

$$C_0(\phi ,T)\phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_T}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}$$

where the constant hidden in the symbol $``$ depends only on the radius $`R`$ and on a number $`r>0`$ such that $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ is disjoint from $`B(O,r)`$.

We can rephrase the estimate of Proposition 3 as follows. The hyperbolic triangle $`T`$ has a natural *center* $`O_T`$, defined for instance as the point that is at equal distance from the three sides of $`T`$.

###### Lemma 4.

$$\left|d(O,O_T)D_T\left|u_T\right|\right|1$$

###### Proof of Lemma 4.

By elementary hyperbolic geometry, the distance $`d(O,O_T)`$ is within $`\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{log}3`$ of $`d(O,y_T)`$ which, by consideration of the right angled hyperbolic triangle $`Ox_Ty_T`$, is itself within $`\mathrm{log}2`$ of $`D_T+\left|u_T\right|`$. ∎

The estimate of Proposition 3 can therefore be rewritten as

$$C_0(\phi ,T)\phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{\nu d(O,T)}\mathrm{e}^{d(O,O_T)}.$$

We now begin the proof of Proposition 3, which will occupy most of this section. We split the argument in two cases, according to whether the distance $`D_T`$ from $`O`$ to $`T`$ is larger than $`2R`$ or not.

###### Proof of Proposition 3 when $`D_T2R`$.

Choose the isometry $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}`$ between $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$, endowed with the metric $`m_0`$, and the Poincaré disk model for the hyperbolic space $`^2`$, bounded by the unit circle $`S^1`$ in $``$, so that $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}`$ sends the base point $`O\stackrel{~}{S}`$ to the center $`0^2`$ of the disk. We use $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}`$ to identify $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$ to $`^2`$ so that, in this identification $`\stackrel{~}{S}^2`$, the map $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}`$ is now the identity. We will consequently use the same symbol to represent an object in $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$ and the corresponding object in $`^2`$.

As in the proof of Lemma 2, we can assume without loss of generality that $`\phi `$ is balanced, namely invariant under the involution $`r`$ of $`G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$ defined by reversing the orientation of geodesics.

Every geodesic $`h`$ which contributes to the integrals in $`C_0(\phi ,T)`$ must be in the support of $`\phi `$ and must cross at least one of the geodesics $`g_i^T`$. Because of our assumption that $`D_T2R`$ and by choice of $`R`$, such an $`h`$ will necessarily cross $`g_3^T`$. The vertices of the ideal triangle $`T`$ decompose the circle $`_{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{S}S^1`$ into three intervals $`I_1`$, $`I_2`$ and $`I_3`$, where $`I_i`$ has the same end points as the geodesic $`g_i^T`$. If we combine the definition of $`C_0(\phi ,T)`$ in Equation 5, the computation of Lemma 2 for $`C_0(\phi ,g)`$, the expression for the Liouville geodesic current $`L_^2`$ given in Section 2, and the fact that $`\phi `$ is balanced, it follows that

$$\begin{array}{c}C_0(\phi ,T)=4_{I_3}_{I_1I_2}\phi (h(x,y))(\mathrm{cos}\theta (g_3^T,h(x,y))\hfill \\ \hfill \mathrm{cos}\theta (g_1^T,h(x,y))\mathrm{cos}\theta (g_2^T,h(x,y)))\frac{dxdy}{\left|xy\right|^2}\end{array}$$

where $`h(x,y)`$ denotes the geodesic with end points $`x`$, $`yS^1`$. It therefore suffices to bound the quantity

$$\begin{array}{c}I(y)=2_{I_1I_2}\phi (h(x,y))(\mathrm{cos}\theta (g_3^T,h(x,y))\hfill \\ \hfill \mathrm{cos}\theta (g_1^T,h(x,y))\mathrm{cos}\theta (g_2^T,h(x,y)))\frac{dx}{\left|xy\right|^2}\end{array}$$

for every $`yI_3`$. (The factor $`2`$ is here to avoid dragging cumbersome constants in the computations below.)

We now switch to the upper-half space model for $`^2`$, bounded by the real line $``$ in $``$, in such a way that the base point $`O`$ now corresponds to the point $`i^2`$ and in such a way that the point $`y`$ is sent to $`\mathrm{}`$. The measure $`dx/\left|xy\right|^2`$ on $`S^1`$ is then sent to the measure $`\frac{1}{2}dx`$ on $``$. In this context, this gives the expression

$$\begin{array}{c}I(\mathrm{})=_a^b\phi (h(x,\mathrm{}))(\mathrm{cos}\theta (g_3^T,h(x,\mathrm{}))\hfill \\ \hfill \mathrm{cos}\theta (g_1^T,h(x,\mathrm{}))\mathrm{cos}\theta (g_2^T,h(x,\mathrm{})))dx\end{array}$$

where, as before, $`h(x,\mathrm{})`$ is the geodesic going from $`x`$ to $`y=\mathrm{}`$, namely the vertical euclidean line passing through $`x`$, and where $`a`$ and $`b`$ correspond to the end points of $`I_3`$, with $`a<b`$.

Let $`c`$ correspond to the third vertex of $`T`$. If we use elementary euclidean geometry to compute $`\mathrm{cos}\theta (g_k^T,h(x,\mathrm{}))`$ and if we write $`\psi (x)=\phi (h(x,\mathrm{}))`$, then

$$\begin{array}{c}I(\mathrm{})=_a^b\psi (x)\frac{2xab}{ba}𝑑x\hfill \\ \hfill _a^c\psi (x)\frac{2xac}{ca}𝑑x_c^b\psi (x)\frac{2xcb}{bc}𝑑x.\end{array}$$

Note that

$$_a^b\frac{2xab}{ba}𝑑x=_a^c\frac{2xac}{ca}𝑑x=_c^b\frac{2xcb}{bc}𝑑x=0.$$

Therefore,

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill I(\mathrm{})& =_a^b\eta (x)\frac{2xab}{ba}𝑑x_a^c\eta (x)\frac{2xac}{ca}𝑑x_c^b\eta (x)\frac{2xcb}{bc}𝑑x\hfill \\ & =_a^c\eta (x)\frac{2(xa)(bc)}{(ba)(ca)}𝑑x+_c^b\eta (x)\frac{2(bx)(ca)}{(ba)(bc)}𝑑x\hfill \end{array}$$

if we set $`\eta (x)=\psi (x)\psi (c)`$. Integrating in $`x`$, we conclude that

(8)
$$\left|I(\mathrm{})\right|2\frac{(ca)(bc)}{ba}\underset{x[a,b]}{\mathrm{max}}\left|\eta (x)\right|$$

We now use the fact that $`\phi :G(\stackrel{~}{S})`$ is Hölder continuous with respect to the angle metric on $`S^1`$, with Hölder exponent $`\nu ]0,1]`$ and with Hölder norm $`\phi _\nu `$. As we switch from the disk model to the upper half-space model for $`^2`$ by an isometry sending $`0`$ to $`i`$, the angle metric on $`S^1`$ becomes the metric $`\frac{2}{1+x^2}dx`$ on $``$. It follows that the function $`\eta (x)=\psi (x)\psi (c)=\phi (h(x,\mathrm{}))\phi ((h(c,\mathrm{}))`$ is Hölder continuous with respect to the usual metric $`dx`$ of $``$, with Hölder exponent $`\nu `$ and with Hölder norm $`\eta _\nu 2\phi _\nu `$.

In particular, because $`\eta (c)=0`$, we have that $`\left|\eta (x)\right|2\phi _\nu \left|xc\right|^\nu `$ for every $`x`$. It follows that $`\mathrm{max}_{x[a,b]}\left|\eta (x)\right|`$ is bounded by $`2\phi _\nu \left|ba\right|^\nu `$. Combining with Equation 8, we obtain that

(9)
$$\left|I(\mathrm{})\right|4\phi _\nu \frac{(ca)(bc)}{ba}\left|ba\right|^\nu .$$

We now estimate $`D_T`$ and $`u_T`$ in terms of $`a`$, $`b`$ and $`c`$.

###### Lemma 5.

If $`I(\mathrm{})0`$ and if $`T`$ is at distance at least $`2R`$ from the base point $`O`$, then:

1. $`\mathrm{e}^{D_T}ba;`$
2. $`caba`$ and $`\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}\frac{bc}{ba}`$ when $`u_T0;`$
3. $`bcba`$ and $`\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}\frac{ca}{ba}`$ when $`u_T0`$.

###### Proof of Lemma 5.

On the geodesic $`g_3^T`$, with end points $`a`$ and $`b`$, we already have two preferred points, namely the orthogonal projection $`x_T`$ of $`O=i`$ and the orthogonal projection $`y_T`$ of the vertex $`c`$. Recall that $`D_T`$ is the distance from $`O`$ to $`x_T`$, and that $`u_T`$ is the signed distance from $`x_T`$ to $`y_T`$ in the oriented geodesic $`g_3^T`$. Consider a third point, namely the orthogonal projection $`z_T`$ of the point $`\mathrm{}`$ to $`g_3^T`$. In euclidean terms, $`z_T`$ is the point of the euclidean semi-circle $`g_3^T^2`$ that has the largest imaginary part, namely $`z_T=\frac{a+b}{2}+\frac{ba}{2}i`$.

The points $`x`$ such that the geodesic joining $`x`$ to $`\mathrm{}`$ meets the disk $`B(O,R)`$ form an interval $`[R^{},R^{}]`$, where $`R^{}`$ depends only on $`R`$. If $`I(\mathrm{})0`$, then the intervals $`[a,b]`$ and $`[R^{},R^{}]`$ have a non-trivial intersection. Since, in addition, $`g_3^T`$ is disjoint from the interior of the ball $`B(O,2R)`$, we conclude that $`a`$ and $`b`$ stay in a closed interval $`[R^{\prime \prime },R^{\prime \prime }]`$ where, again, $`R^{\prime \prime }`$ depends only on $`R`$.

Consider the horocycle centered at $`\mathrm{}`$ passing through $`O`$, namely the euclidean horizontal line passing through $`O=i`$. Let $`z_T^{}`$ be the point of this horocycle which lies on the same vertical line as $`z_T`$, namely $`z_T^{}=\frac{a+b}{2}+i`$. The piece of horocycle joining $`O`$ to $`z_T^{}`$ has length $`\left|\frac{a+b}{2}\right|R^{\prime \prime }`$. It follows that the distance from $`O`$ to $`z_T^{}`$ is bounded by $`R^{\prime \prime }`$. Also, the orthogonal projection of $`z_T^{}`$ to $`g_3^T`$ is equal to $`z_T`$, the orthogonal projection of $`O`$ to $`g_3^T`$ is equal to $`x_T`$, and the orthogonal projection map is distance non-increasing; it follows that the distance from $`x_T`$ to $`z_T`$ is also bounded by $`R^{\prime \prime }`$.

By definition, $`D_T`$ is equal to the distance from $`O`$ to $`x_T`$. From the above observations and the triangle inequality, it follows that $`D_T`$ is within $`2R^{\prime \prime }`$ of the distance from $`z_T^{}=\frac{a+b}{2}+i`$ to $`z_T=\frac{a+b}{2}+\frac{ba}{2}i`$. Since this distance is equal to $`\left|\mathrm{log}\frac{ba}{2}\right|`$, and since $`\frac{ba}{2}R^{\prime \prime }`$ this proves that $`\mathrm{e}^{D_T}ba`$.

Similarly, $`u_T`$ is equal to the signed distance from the point $`x_T`$ to $`y_T`$ in $`g_3^T`$, and is therefore within $`R^{\prime \prime }`$ of the signed distance $`u_T^{}`$ from $`z_T`$ to $`y_T`$. Consider the isometry $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ of $`^2`$ sending $`a`$, $`b`$, $`\mathrm{}`$ to $`\mathrm{}`$, $`0`$, $`1`$, respectively. Then $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ sends $`c`$ to $`\mathrm{e}^{u_T^{}}`$. From the invariance of cross-products under $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$, we conclude that

$$\frac{(\mathrm{e}^{u_T^{}}0)(1\mathrm{})}{(\mathrm{e}^{u_T^{}}\mathrm{})(10)}=\frac{(cb)(\mathrm{}a)}{(ca)(\mathrm{}b)}$$

namely $`\mathrm{e}^{u_T^{}}=\frac{bc}{ca}`$. It follows that

$$\mathrm{e}^{u_T}\mathrm{e}^{u_T^{}}=\frac{bc}{ca}.$$

If $`u_T0`$, then $`u_T^{}`$ admits a uniform lower bound and $`\mathrm{e}^{u_T^{}}`$ admits a uniform upper bound, so that $`bcca`$. It follows that $`caba`$. This implies

$$\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}=\mathrm{e}^{u_T}\frac{bc}{ca}\frac{bc}{ba}.$$

Similarly, when $`u_T0`$, then $`bcba`$ and

$$\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}=\mathrm{e}^{u_T}\mathrm{e}^{u_T^{}}=\frac{ca}{bc}\frac{ca}{ba}.$$

This concludes the proof of Lemma 5.

We now return to our estimate

$$\left|I(\mathrm{})\right|4\phi _\nu \frac{(ca)(bc)}{ba}\left|ba\right|^\nu $$

from Equation 9.

When $`u_T0`$, Lemma 5 and the fact that $`caba`$ imply

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \left|I(\mathrm{})\right|& 4\phi _\nu (bc)\left|ba\right|^\nu \hfill \\ & \phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{D_T}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}\mathrm{e}^{\nu D_T}.\hfill \end{array}$$

The same estimate holds when $`u_T0`$ by a symmetric argument.

If we go back to the beginning of the proof, this shows that

$$I(y)\phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_T}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}$$

for every $`yI_3`$. Then,

$$C_0(\phi ,T)=2_{I_3}I(y)𝑑y\phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_T}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}.$$

This concludes the proof of Proposition 3 when $`T`$ is at distance at least $`2R`$ from the base point $`O`$. ∎

###### Proof of Proposition 3 when $`D_T2R`$.

Note that, in this case, we only need to show that $`C_0(\phi ,T)\phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}`$. Also, we again can assume that $`\phi `$ is balanced, without loss of generality.

In this case, we have an additional term because there can be geodesics $`h`$ which contribute to $`C_0(\phi ,T)`$ but which do not meet the geodesic $`g_3^T`$. These additional geodesics must cross both $`g_1^T`$ and $`g_2^T`$, and therefore must have one end point in the interval $`I_1`$ and the other one in $`I_2`$. So, $`C_0(\phi ,T)`$ splits as a sum $`C_0(\phi ,T)=C_1(\phi ,T)+C_2(\phi ,T)`$ with

$$\begin{array}{c}C_1(\phi ,T)=4_{I_3}_{I_1I_2}\phi (h(x,y))(\mathrm{cos}\theta (g_3^T,h(x,y))\hfill \\ \hfill \mathrm{cos}\theta (g_1^T,h(x,y))\mathrm{cos}\theta (g_2^T,h(x,y)))\frac{dxdy}{\left|xy\right|^2}\end{array}$$

and

$$\begin{array}{c}C_2(\phi ,T)=4_{I_1}_{I_2}\phi (h(x,y))(\mathrm{cos}\theta (g_1^T,h(x,y))\hfill \\ \hfill \mathrm{cos}\theta (g_2^T,h(x,y)))\frac{dxdy}{\left|xy\right|^2}\end{array}$$

using the fact that $`\phi `$ is balanced.

As in the first case, to bound the first integral $`C_1(\phi ,T)`$, it suffices to bound the quantity

$$\begin{array}{c}I(y)=2_{I_1I_2}\phi (h(x,y))(\mathrm{cos}\theta (g_3^T,h(x,y))\hfill \\ \hfill \mathrm{cos}\theta (g_1^T,h(x,y))\mathrm{cos}\theta (g_2^T,h(x,y)))\frac{dx}{\left|xy\right|^2}\end{array}$$

for every $`yI_3`$.

For future reference, let us note the following easy fact.

###### Lemma 6.

$$I(y)\phi _\nu .$$

###### Proof of Lemma 6.

If $`x`$ contributes to $`I(y)`$, then $`h(x,y)`$ meets the disk $`B(O,R)`$, so that $`\left|xy\right|`$ is bounded away from 0. ∎

Let us switch again to the upper half-space model for $`^2`$, in such a way that $`y`$ corresponds to $`\mathrm{}`$ and $`O`$ corresponds to $`i`$. Then $`I(y)`$ becomes $`I(\mathrm{})`$ with

(10)
$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill I(\mathrm{})& =_a^b\psi (x)\frac{2xab}{ba}𝑑x_a^c\psi (x)\frac{2xac}{ca}𝑑x_c^b\psi (x)\frac{2xcb}{bc}𝑑x\hfill \\ & =_a^c\psi (x)\frac{2(xa)(bc)}{(ba)(ca)}𝑑x+_c^b\psi (x)\frac{2(bx)(ca)}{(ba)(bc)}𝑑x\hfill \end{array}$$

with $`\psi (x)=\phi (h(x,\mathrm{}))`$ (no need to introduce a function $`\eta `$ now). If we again note that $`\left|\psi (x)\right|\phi _\nu `$ for every $`x`$ and if we integrate in $`x`$, it follows that

(11)
$$\left|I(\mathrm{})\right|2\phi _\nu \frac{(ca)(bc)}{ba}.$$

Let us relate this estimate to $`\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}`$.

###### Lemma 7.

If $`T`$ is at distance at most $`2R`$ and at least $`r>0`$ from the base point $`O`$,

1. $`\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}\frac{bc}{1+bc}`$ when $`u_T0;`$
2. $`\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}\frac{ca}{1+ac}`$ when $`u_T0`$.

###### Proof of Lemma 7.

Consider the case where $`u_T0`$. The other case is similar.

Let $`\rho `$ be the hyperbolic rotation around the point $`O=i`$ that sends $`a`$ to 0. Namely, $`\rho (z)=(za)/(az+1)`$. The distance from $`O`$ to the geodesic $`\rho (g_3^T)`$ is equal to the distance from $`O`$ to $`g_3^T`$ and, by hypothesis, is therefore bounded between the two positive constants $`r`$ and $`2R`$. Since the end points of $`\rho (g_3^T)`$ are $`\rho (a)=0`$ and $`\rho (b)`$, it follows that there are two constants $`0<R_1<R_2<\mathrm{}`$ such that $`\rho (b)[R_1,R_2]`$. Namely $`\rho (b)1`$.

Since $`\rho (a)`$ and $`\rho (b)`$ stay bounded, we can apply to $`\rho (T)`$ the arguments of the proof of Lemma 5. Note that $`\left|u_T\right|`$ is equal to the distance from $`\rho (x_T)`$ to $`\rho (y_T)`$. On the euclidean semi-circle $`\rho (g_3^T)`$, let $`z_T`$ be the point that has the largest imaginary part and let $`u_T^{}`$ be the signed distance from $`\rho (y_T)`$ to $`z_T`$ in $`\rho (g_3^T)`$. Then, as in the proof of Lemma 5, $`u_T`$ is within a uniformly bounded distance of $`u_T^{}`$ and

$$\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}=\mathrm{e}^{u_T}\mathrm{e}^{u_T^{}}=\frac{\rho (c)\rho (a)}{\rho (b)\rho (c)}=\frac{\rho (c)}{\rho (b)\rho (c)}$$

since $`\rho (a)=0`$. Because $`u_T0`$, it follows that $`\rho (c)\rho (b)\rho (c)`$, and therefore that $`\rho (b)\rho (c)\rho (b)1`$. This proves

$$\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}\frac{\rho (c)}{\rho (b)\rho (c)}\rho (c)=\frac{ca}{1+ac}.$$

This concludes the proof of Lemma 7 when $`u_T0`$. The other case is similar, using the hyperbolic rotation around $`O`$ that sends $`b`$ to 0.

We now return to $`I(\mathrm{})`$. We want to prove that $`I(\mathrm{})\phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}`$.

The support of $`\psi `$ is contained in the interval $`[R^{},R^{}]`$ consisting of those $`x`$ such that the geodesic joining $`x`$ to $`\mathrm{}`$ meets the disk $`B(O,R)`$. Therefore, if $`I(\mathrm{})0`$, the interval $`[a,b]`$ must meet $`[R^{},R^{}]`$. Also, if $`[a,b]`$ contains $`[R^{},R^{}]`$, its length $`ba`$ cannot be too large, as $`O=i`$ would otherwise be on the wrong side of the oriented geodesic $`g_3^T`$ going from $`a`$ to $`b`$. Therefore, there exists $`R^{\prime \prime }>R^{}`$, depending only on $`R`$, such that at least one of $`a`$, $`b`$ belongs to the interval $`[R^{\prime \prime },R^{\prime \prime }]`$.

Let us restrict attention, without loss of generality, to the case where $`a`$ is in $`[R^{\prime \prime },R^{\prime \prime }]`$. We now split the argument in two cases, according to whether $`u_T0`$ or $`u_T0`$.

First consider the case where $`u_T0`$. Since $`I(\mathrm{})`$ is bounded by Lemma 6, we can restrict attention to the case where $`\left|u_T\right|`$ is uniformly large, namely where, by Lemma 7, $`w=(ca)/(1+ac)>0`$ is uniformly small. Note that $`ca=w(1+a^2)/(1aw)`$ so that $`caw`$ if $`0<w<1/(2R^{\prime \prime })`$ (since $`R^{\prime \prime }aR^{\prime \prime }`$). By Equation 11 and Lemma 7, it then follows that

$$\left|I(\mathrm{})\right|2\phi _\nu \frac{(ca)(bc)}{ba}2\phi _\nu (ca)\phi _\nu w\phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}$$

which concludes the proof that $`\left|I(\mathrm{})\right|\phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}`$ in this case.

Now consider the case where $`u_T0`$. Again, by Lemmas 6 and 7, we can restrict attention to the case where $`\left|u_T\right|`$ is uniformly large, namely where $`w^{}=(bc)/(1+bc)>0`$ is uniformly small.

If $`b`$ is uniformly bounded, say $`\left|b\right|2R^{\prime \prime }`$, the same argument as above gives that $`bcw^{}`$ if $`0<w^{}<1/(4R^{\prime \prime })`$, so that

$$\left|I(\mathrm{})\right|2\phi _\nu \frac{(ca)(bc)}{ba}2\phi _\nu (bc)\phi _\nu w^{}\phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}.$$

In the other case where $`\left|b\right|2R^{\prime \prime }`$, then $`b2R^{\prime \prime }`$ since $`b>aR^{\prime \prime }`$. Note that

$$c=(bw^{})/(1+bw^{})(2R^{\prime \prime }w^{})/(1+2R^{\prime \prime }w^{})R^{\prime \prime }>R^{}$$

if $`w^{}<\mathrm{min}\{\frac{1}{4R^{\prime \prime }},\frac{R^{\prime \prime }}{2}\}`$. (For the first inequality, note that the function $`b(bw^{})/(1+bw^{})`$ is monotone increasing). We now need to go back to the original expression for $`I(\mathrm{})`$ in Equation 10. If we remember that the support of $`\psi `$ is contained in $`[R^{},R^{}]`$,

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \left|I(\mathrm{})\right|& =\left|_a^c\psi (x)\frac{2(xa)(bc)}{(ba)(ca)}𝑑x+_c^b\psi (x)\frac{2(bx)(ca)}{(ba)(bc)}𝑑x\right|\hfill \\ & =\left|_a^R^{}\psi (x)\frac{2(xa)(bc)}{(ba)(ca)}𝑑x\right|\hfill \\ & \phi _\nu (R^{}a)^2\frac{bc}{(ca)(ba)}\hfill \\ & \phi _\nu (R^{}a)^2\frac{bc}{1+bc}\frac{1+bc}{(ca)(ba)}\hfill \\ & \phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}\hfill \end{array}$$

by Lemma 7 and using the fact that $`\frac{1+bc}{(ca)(ba)}`$ is uniformly bounded when $`aR^{}<R^{\prime \prime }c<b`$.

This proves that $`I(\mathrm{})\phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}`$ in all cases.

Therefore $`I(y)\phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}`$ for every $`yI_3`$, and

$$C_1(\phi ,T)=2_{I_3}I(y)𝑑y\phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}.$$

We now consider the other term

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill C_2(\phi ,T)& =4_{I_1}_{I_2}\phi (h(x,y))\left(\mathrm{cos}\theta (g_1^T,h(x,y))\mathrm{cos}\theta (g_2^T,h(x,y))\right)\frac{dxdy}{\left|xy\right|^2}\hfill \\ & \phi _\nu \mathrm{length}(I_1)\mathrm{length}(I_2)\hfill \end{array}$$

since $`\left|xy\right|`$ is bounded away from 0 when the geodesic $`h(x,y)`$ belongs to the support of $`\phi `$.

###### Lemma 8.

1. $`\mathrm{length}(I_1)\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}`$ and $`\mathrm{length}(I_2)1`$ when $`u_T0;`$
2. $`\mathrm{length}(I_2)\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}`$ and $`\mathrm{length}(I_1)1`$ when $`u_T0`$.

###### Proof of Lemma 8.

By symmetry, we can restrict attention to the case where $`u_T0`$ without loss of generality.

The length of $`I_1S^1`$ is equal to the angle under which $`I_1`$ is seen from $`O`$. Since the projection $`x_T`$ of $`O`$ to $`g_3^T`$ stays in the ball $`B(O,2R)`$, this angle is comparable to the angle $`\theta `$ under which $`I_1`$ is seen from $`x_T`$, namely $`\mathrm{length}(I_1)\theta `$. Considering the right-angled hyperbolic triangle whose vertices are $`x_T`$, the vertex $`c`$ of $`T`$ that separates $`I_1`$ from $`I_2`$, and the projection $`y_T`$ of $`c`$ to $`g_3^T`$, elementary hyperbolic trigonometry gives

$$\mathrm{length}(I_1)\mathrm{sin}\theta =\frac{1}{\mathrm{cosh}\left|u_T\right|}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}$$

since $`\left|u_T\right|`$ is equal to the hyperbolic distance from $`x_T`$ to $`y_T`$ by definition.

Because the distance from $`O`$ to $`g_3^T`$ is bounded, $`\mathrm{length}(I_1)+\mathrm{length}(I_2)1`$, so that $`\mathrm{length}(I_2)1`$.

This concludes the proof of Lemma 8. ∎

From Lemma 8 and our prior estimate, we obtain

$$C_2(\phi ,T)\phi _\nu \mathrm{length}(I_1)\mathrm{length}(I_2)\phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}.$$

Since we already showed that $`C_1(\phi ,T)\phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}`$, this proves

$$C_0(\phi ,T)=C_1(\phi ,T)+C_2(\phi ,T)\phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|},$$

which concludes the proof of Proposition 3 when $`D_T2R`$, and therefore in all cases. ∎

We will need a refinement of Proposition 3, which is automatically given by the above proof. Indeed, it did not use the full force of the hypothesis that $`\phi `$ is Hölder continuous. The Hölder continuity of $`\phi `$ did not come up at all in the case where $`D_T2R`$, where only the $`\mathrm{L}^{\mathrm{}}`$ norm $`sup_{gG(\stackrel{~}{S})}\left|\phi (g)\right|\phi _\nu `$ was used. In the case where $`D_T2R`$, the only occurrence of the Hölder continuity was just above Equation 9, and more precisely in the statement that

$$\left|\eta (x)\right|=\left|\psi (x)\psi (c)\right|=\left|\phi (h(x,\mathrm{}))\phi (h(c,\mathrm{}))\right|2\phi _\nu \left|ba\right|^\nu $$

for every $`x[a,b]`$, with the notation used there. Because of the estimate that $`ba\mathrm{e}^{D_T}`$ from Lemma 5, we can replace this inequality by the stronger (up to a constant) statement that

$$\left|\eta (x)\right|\phi _{g_3^T,\nu }\mathrm{e}^{\nu D_T}$$

where, for a geodesic $`gG\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$ which is disjoint from the base point $`O`$, $`\phi _{g,\nu }\phi _\nu `$ is defined by

(12)
$$\phi _{g,\nu }=\underset{hG(\stackrel{~}{S})}{sup}\left|\phi (h)\right|+\underset{h,h^{}}{sup}\frac{\left|\phi (h)\phi (h^{})\right|}{\mathrm{e}^{\nu D_g}}$$

where the second supremum is taken over all geodesics $`h`$, $`h^{}`$ which both cross the geodesic $`g`$ and have the same end point on the side of $`g`$ facing the base point $`O`$, and where $`D_g`$ is the distance from $`O`$ to $`g`$.

Then the proof of Proposition 3 automatically gives:

###### Lemma 9.

Let $`\phi :G(\stackrel{~}{S})`$ be a Hölder continuous function with Hölder exponent $`\nu `$, and such that every geodesic $`gG(\stackrel{~}{S})`$ in the support of $`\phi `$ meets the ball $`B(O,R)\stackrel{~}{S}`$. Then,

$$C_0(\phi ,T)\phi _{g_3^T,\nu }\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_T}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}$$

where the constant hidden in the symbol $``$ depends only on the radius $`R`$ and on a number $`r>0`$ such that $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ is disjoint from $`B(O,r)`$. ∎

We will need a similar estimate for the quantity

$$C_0(\phi ,g)=\frac{d}{da}_{G(^2)}\phi \mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}^1\left(E_g^a\right)^1𝑑L_^2_{|a=0}$$

associated to the geodesic $`gG\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$ as in Equation 4. Again, let $`D_g`$ be the distance from $`g`$ to the base point $`O`$, measured in the metric $`m_0`$.

###### Proposition 10.

Let $`\phi :G(\stackrel{~}{S})`$ be a Hölder continuous function with Hölder exponent $`\nu `$, and such that every geodesic $`gG(\stackrel{~}{S})`$ in the support of $`\phi `$ meets the ball $`B(O,R)\stackrel{~}{S}`$. Then,

$$\left|C_0(\phi ,g)\right|\phi _{g,\nu }\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_g}\phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_g}$$

where the constant hidden in the symbol $``$ depends only on the radius $`R`$.

###### Proof.

The proof is very similar to, and much simpler than, the first case of the proof of Proposition 3. We consequently omit it. ∎

## 6. Convergence of infinite sums

This section is devoted to proving that the conjectural formula of Equation 6 really makes sense.

The arguments of Section 5 were exclusively based in the universal cover $`\stackrel{~}{S}^2`$. In this section, we will strongly use the action of $`\pi _1(S)`$ and the fact that the quotient space $`S`$ of $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$ under this action is compact.

###### Proposition 11.

The sum

$$\underset{T}{}\dot{\sigma }_0(T)C_0(\phi ,T)$$

is convergent, and its absolute value is bounded by $`c\phi _\nu `$ for a constant $`c`$ depending only on the Hölder exponent $`\nu `$ and on a compact subset containing the support of $`\phi `$ (as well as on the metric $`m_0𝒯(S)`$ and on the transverse cocycle $`\dot{\sigma }_0(\lambda )`$).

###### Proof.

By Proposition 3, it suffices to show that $`_T\left|\dot{\sigma }_0(T)\right|\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_T}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}`$ converges.

Let $`\mathrm{\Phi }S`$ be a train track carrying $`\lambda `$. Recall that a *(fattened) train track* $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ on the surface $`S`$ is a family of finitely many ‘long’ rectangles $`e_1`$, …, $`e_n`$ which are foliated by arcs parallel to the ‘short’ sides and which meet only along arcs (possibly reduced to a point) contained in their short sides. In addition, a train track $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ must satisfy the following:

1. each point of the ‘short’ side of a rectangle also belongs to another rectangle, and each component of the union of the short sides of all rectangles is an arc, as opposed to a closed curve;
2. note that the closure $`\overline{S\mathrm{\Phi }}`$ of the complement $`S\mathrm{\Phi }`$ has a certain number of ‘spikes’, corresponding to the points where at least 3 rectangles meet; we require that no component of $`\overline{S\mathrm{\Phi }}`$ is a disc with 0, 1 or 2 spikes or an annulus with no spike.

The rectangles are called the *edges* of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$. The foliations of the edges of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ induce a foliation of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$, whose leaves are the *ties* of the train track. The finitely many ties where several edges meet are the *switches* of the train track $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$. A tie which is not a switch is *generic*. The geodesic lamination $`\lambda `$ is *carried* by the train track $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ if it is contained in the interior of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and if its leaves are transverse to the ties of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$. There are several constructions which provide a train track $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ carrying $`\lambda `$; see for instance \[PH\]\[CEG\].

Let $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$ be the preimage of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ in the universal covering $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$. Choose an orientation for the ties of each edge of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ (with no requirement that these orientations match at the switches), and lift this orientation to all the edges of $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$. For each edge $`\stackrel{~}{e}`$ of $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$, let $`T_{\stackrel{~}{e}}`$ be the component of $`\stackrel{~}{S}\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ that contains the negative end points of the ties of $`\stackrel{~}{e}`$, for this choice of orientation.

Recall that, for a component $`TT_O`$ of $`\stackrel{~}{S}\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$, $`x_T`$ is the point of the closure of $`T`$ that is closest to the base point $`O`$. To simplify the exposition, we can arrange by a small perturbation of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ that no $`x_T`$ in contained in a switch of $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$. As a consequence, each $`x_T`$ is contained in a unique edge $`\stackrel{~}{e}`$ of $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$. Then,

(13)
$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \underset{T}{}\left|\dot{\sigma }_0(T)C_0(\phi ,T)\right|& \phi _\nu \underset{T}{}\left|\dot{\sigma }_0(T)\right|\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_T}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}\hfill \\ & \phi _\nu \underset{\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\underset{x_T\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\left|\dot{\sigma }_0(T)\right|\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_T}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}\hfill \\ & \phi _\nu \underset{\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\underset{x_T\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\left|\dot{\sigma }_0(T)\dot{\sigma }_0(T_{\stackrel{~}{e}})\right|\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_T}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}\hfill \\ & +\phi _\nu \underset{\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\underset{x_T\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\left|\dot{\sigma }_0(T_{\stackrel{~}{e}})\right|\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_T}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}\hfill \end{array}$$

where the sums $`_{\stackrel{~}{e}}`$ are over all edges of $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$ and where the sums $`_{x_T\stackrel{~}{e}}`$ are over those components $`T`$ of $`\stackrel{~}{S}\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ for which $`x_T`$ is in $`\stackrel{~}{e}`$.

The distance $`D_T`$ is also the distance from $`x_T`$ to the base point $`O`$. It follows that, if $`x_T\stackrel{~}{e}`$, then

(14)
$$\mathrm{e}^{D_T}\mathrm{e}^{D_{\stackrel{~}{e}}}$$

where $`D_{\stackrel{~}{e}}`$ is the distance from $`O`$ to $`\stackrel{~}{e}`$ and where the constants hidden in the symbol $``$ depend only on the diameters of the edges $`\stackrel{~}{e}`$, which are uniformly bounded by equivariance under the action of $`\pi _1(S)`$.

If $`x_T\stackrel{~}{e}`$, consider the *divergence radius* $`r(T)`$ of the component $`T\stackrel{~}{e}`$ of $`\stackrel{~}{e}\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$, defined as follows. If $`T\stackrel{~}{e}`$ is one of the two components of $`\stackrel{~}{e}\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ that touch the boundary $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$, then $`r(T)=1`$. Otherwise, $`T\stackrel{~}{e}`$ is delimited by two geodesic arcs contained in two of the three leaves $`g_i^T`$, $`i\{1,2,3\}`$, of $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ bounding $`T`$. These two leaves are asymptotic on one side of $`\stackrel{~}{e}`$. On the other side, they cross the same succession of $`r`$ edges of $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$ before taking diverging routes at some switch of $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$. Then, $`r(T)`$ is defined as this number $`r`$ of edges which the two leaves cross together before diverging.

A consequence of the combinatorics of transverse cocycles, proved in \[Bo4, Lemma 6\], is that

(15)
$$\left|\dot{\sigma }_0(T)\dot{\sigma }_0(T_{\stackrel{~}{e}})\right|\dot{\sigma }_0_\mathrm{\Phi }r(T)r(T)$$

where $`\dot{\sigma }_0_\mathrm{\Phi }=\mathrm{max}\{\left|\dot{\sigma }_0(e)\right|;e\mathrm{edge}\mathrm{of}\mathrm{\Phi }\}`$ and where we absorb this quantity $`\dot{\sigma }_0_\mathrm{\Phi }`$ in the constant of the second $``$.

The complement $`S\lambda `$ has finitely many components; see for instance \[CEG\]\[PH\]. As a consequence, there are only finitely many $`T`$ modulo the action of $`\pi _1(S)`$. It follows that, when we consider the point $`y_T`$ projection to $`g_3^T`$ of the third vertex of $`T`$, the distance from $`y_T`$ to $`T\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$ is uniformly bounded. From the definition of $`r(T)`$ and the definition of $`u_T`$ as the signed distance from $`x_T`$ to $`y_T`$, we conclude that $`r(T)\left|u_T\right|+1`$, where the constants in the symbol $``$ depend only on the (suitably defined) lengths of the edges of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$. It follows that there is an $`a>0`$ such that

(16)
$$\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}\mathrm{e}^{ar(T)}.$$

Finally, using a compact fundamental domain for the action of $`\pi _1(S)`$ on $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$, one can go from $`O`$ to $`T_{\stackrel{~}{e}}`$ by a path which crosses at most $`D_{\stackrel{~}{e}}`$ edges of $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$, or more precisely which is made up of $`D_{\stackrel{~}{e}}`$ ties and of arcs in $`\stackrel{~}{S}\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$. It follows that

(17)
$$\left|\dot{\sigma }_0(T_{\stackrel{~}{e}})\right|\dot{\sigma }_0_\mathrm{\Phi }D_{\stackrel{~}{e}}D_{\stackrel{~}{e}}.$$

Combining the estimates of Equations 1317, we obtain

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \underset{T}{}\left|\dot{\sigma }_0(T)C_0(\phi ,T)\right|& \phi _\nu \underset{\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\underset{x_T\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\left|\dot{\sigma }_0(T)\dot{\sigma }_0(T_{\stackrel{~}{e}})\right|\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_T}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}\hfill \\ & +\phi _\nu \underset{\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\underset{x_T\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\left|\dot{\sigma }_0(T_{\stackrel{~}{e}})\right|\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_T}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}\hfill \\ & \phi _\nu \underset{\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\underset{x_T\stackrel{~}{e}}{}r(T)\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_{\stackrel{~}{e}}}\mathrm{e}^{ar(T)}\hfill \\ & +\phi _\nu \underset{\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\underset{x_T\stackrel{~}{e}}{}D_{\stackrel{~}{e}}\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_{\stackrel{~}{e}}}\mathrm{e}^{ar(T)}\hfill \\ & \phi _\nu \underset{\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\underset{x_T\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu ^{})D_{\stackrel{~}{e}}}\mathrm{e}^{a^{}r(T)}\hfill \end{array}$$

for arbitrary $`\nu ^{}<\nu `$ and $`a^{}<a`$.

Given $`\stackrel{~}{e}`$ and an integer $`r1`$, the number of $`T`$ meeting $`\stackrel{~}{e}`$ (or, equivalently of components $`T\stackrel{~}{e}`$ of $`\stackrel{~}{e}\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$) with $`r(T)=r`$ is uniformly bounded by a number depending only on the topology of $`S`$; see \[Bo2, Lemma 4\]. It follows that

$$\underset{x_T\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\mathrm{e}^{a^{}r(T)}\underset{r=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\mathrm{e}^{a^{}r}1$$

and therefore that

$$\underset{T}{}\left|\dot{\sigma }_0(T)C_0(\phi ,T)\right|\phi _\nu \underset{\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu ^{})D_{\stackrel{~}{e}}}.$$

Now, lift the edges $`e_i`$, $`i=1`$, …, $`n`$, of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ to edges $`\stackrel{~}{e}_i`$ of $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$, so that every edge $`\stackrel{~}{e}`$ is of the form $`\gamma \stackrel{~}{e}_i`$ for some $`\gamma \pi _1(S)`$ and for one of these finitely many $`\stackrel{~}{e}_i`$. If $`\stackrel{~}{e}=\gamma \stackrel{~}{e}_i`$, then $`\mathrm{e}^{D_{\stackrel{~}{e}}}\mathrm{e}^{d(O,\gamma O)}`$, so that

$$\underset{T}{}\left|\dot{\sigma }_0(T)C_0(\phi ,T)\right|\phi _\nu \underset{\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu ^{})D_{\stackrel{~}{e}}}\phi _\nu \underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\underset{\gamma \pi _1(S)}{}\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu ^{})d(O,\gamma O)}.$$

By convergence of the Poincaré series

$$\underset{\gamma \pi _1(S)}{}\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu ^{})d(O,\gamma O)}<\mathrm{}$$

for $`\nu ^{}>0`$, this completes the proof of the convergence of the series $`_T\dot{\sigma }_0(T)C_0(\phi ,T)`$. This also shows that $`_T\left|\dot{\sigma }_0(T)C_0(\phi ,T)\right|\phi _\nu `$, which completes the proof of Proposition 11. ∎

We will need at some point a slightly stronger result:

###### Lemma 12.

For $`t`$ sufficiently small, the series

$$\underset{T}{}\dot{\sigma }_t(T)\mathrm{e}^{\left|\alpha _t(T)\right|}\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_T}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}$$

converges, and this uniformly in $`t`$.

###### Proof.

We again split the sum as

$$\underset{T}{}\left|\dot{\sigma }_t(T)\right|\mathrm{e}^{\left|\alpha _t(T)\right|}\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_T}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}=\underset{\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\underset{x_T\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\left|\dot{\sigma }_t(T)\right|\mathrm{e}^{\left|\alpha _t(T)\right|}\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_T}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}.$$

If $`x_T\stackrel{~}{e}`$, it again follows from the combinatorics of transverse cocycles \[Bo4\] that

$$\left|\alpha _t(T)\right|\left|\alpha _t(T_{\stackrel{~}{e}})\right|+\left|\alpha _t(T)\alpha _t(T_{\stackrel{~}{e}})\right|\alpha _t_\mathrm{\Phi }D_{\stackrel{~}{e}}+\alpha _t_\mathrm{\Phi }r(T)$$

and

$$\left|\dot{\sigma }_t(T)\right|\left|\dot{\sigma }_t(T_{\stackrel{~}{e}})\right|+\left|\dot{\sigma }_t(T)\dot{\sigma }_t(T_{\stackrel{~}{e}})\right|\dot{\sigma }_t_\mathrm{\Phi }D_{\stackrel{~}{e}}+\dot{\sigma }_t_\mathrm{\Phi }r(T).$$

Because $`\alpha _0=0`$ and by existence of the derivative cocycle $`\dot{\alpha }_0`$, we have that $`\alpha _t_\mathrm{\Phi }\left|t\right|`$. Also, $`\mathrm{e}^{D_T}\mathrm{e}^{D_{\stackrel{~}{e}}}`$ and $`\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}\mathrm{e}^{at}`$ for some $`a>0`$, as in Equations 14 and 16. Therefore, there are constants $`a`$, $`b>0`$ such that

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \underset{T}{}\left|\dot{\sigma }_t(T)\right|\mathrm{e}^{\left|\alpha _t(T)\right|}& \mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_T}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}\hfill \\ & \underset{\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\underset{x_T\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\dot{\sigma }_t_\mathrm{\Phi }\left(D_{\stackrel{~}{e}}+r(T)\right)\mathrm{e}^{b\left|t\right|D_{\stackrel{~}{e}}+b\left|t\right|r(T)}\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_{\stackrel{~}{e}}}\mathrm{e}^{ar(T)}\hfill \\ & \underset{\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\underset{x_T\stackrel{~}{e}}{}\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu ^{})D_{\stackrel{~}{e}}}\mathrm{e}^{a^{}r(T)}\hfill \end{array}$$

for $`0<\nu ^{}<\nu `$ and $`0<a^{}<a`$, if $`t`$ is chosen sufficiently small that $`b\left|t\right|<inf\{\nu \nu ^{},aa^{}\}`$. We can then conclude the proof as for Proposition 11. ∎

## 7. Proof of the main theorem

The main theorem of the article, namely Theorem 1 in the Introduction, is an immediate consequence of Theorems 13 and 19 below.

###### Theorem 13.

Let $`tm_t`$, $`t]\epsilon ,\epsilon [`$, be a differentiable curve in $`𝒯(S)`$, let $`\lambda `$ be a maximal geodesic lamination in $`S`$, and let $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ be its preimage in the universal covering $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$. Then, for every Hölder continuous function $`\phi :G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$ with compact support,

$$\frac{d}{dt}_{G(\stackrel{~}{S})}\phi 𝑑L_{m_t}_{|t=0}=\underset{TT_O}{}\dot{\sigma }_0(T)C_0(\phi ,T)$$

where: the sum is over all components $`T`$ of $`\stackrel{~}{S}\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ which are different from the component $`T_O`$ containing the base point $`O\stackrel{~}{S}`$;

(18)
$$C_0(\phi ,T)=_{G(\stackrel{~}{S})}\phi (h)\left(\mathrm{cos}\theta (g_3^T,h)\mathrm{cos}\theta (g_1^T,h)\mathrm{cos}\theta (g_2^T,h)\right)𝑑L_{m_0}(h)$$

where the boundary of $`T`$ consists of the geodesics $`g_1^T`$, $`g_2^T`$, $`g_3^T`$ with $`g_3^T`$ closest to $`O`$, $`\mathrm{cos}\theta (g,h)`$ is the cosine of the angle from the geodesic $`g`$ to the geodesic $`h`$ at their intersection point, measured counterclockwise for the metric $`m_0`$, and $`\mathrm{cos}\theta (g,h)=0`$ by convention when $`g`$ and $`h`$ do not meet; $`\dot{\sigma }_0(T)=\frac{d}{dt}\sigma _t(T)_{|t=0}`$ where $`\sigma _t(T)`$ is the number associated by the shearing cocycle $`\sigma _t(\lambda )`$ of $`m_t𝒯(S)`$ to an arbitrary geodesic arc joining the base point $`O`$ to $`T`$.

###### Proof of Theorem 13.

We are now ready to justify the formal computations of Section 4. We will use the definitions and notation of that section. Again, we use the isometry $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}`$ associated to $`m_0`$ to identify $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$ to $`^2`$. In this identification $`\stackrel{~}{S}^2`$, the map $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}`$ is now the identity and we use the same symbol to represent an object in $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$ and its image under $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}`$ in $`^2`$.

Let $`𝒰`$ be a spanning family of components of $`\stackrel{~}{S}\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$, and consider the product

$$E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}=E_{T_1}^{\alpha _t(T_1)}E_{T_2}^{\alpha _t(T_2)}\mathrm{}E_{T_n}^{\alpha _t(T_n)}\underset{U𝒰}{}E_{g_3^U}^{\alpha _t(U)}$$

where $`T_1`$, $`T_2`$, …, $`T_n<𝒰`$ as in Equation 1, and where $`T_i<T_ji<j`$.

Note that, for two transverse cocycles $`\alpha `$, $`h`$,

$$E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha +h}=E_{T_1^{}}^{h(T_1)}E_{T_2^{}}^{h(T_2)}\mathrm{}E_{T_n^{}}^{h(T_n)}\underset{U𝒰}{}E_{g_3^U^{}}^{h(U)}E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^\alpha $$

where $`T_i^{}=E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^\alpha T_i`$ and $`U^{}=E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^\alpha U`$. Since this product involves only finitely many earthquakes, it then follows from Lemma 2 that, for every $`t`$,

(19)
$$\begin{array}{c}\frac{d}{dt}_{G(^2)}\phi \left(E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}\right)^1𝑑L_^2\hfill \\ \hfill =\frac{d}{dt}_{G(^2)}\phi \left(E_{T_1}^{\alpha _t(T_1)}E_{T_2}^{\alpha _t(T_2)}\mathrm{}E_{T_n}^{\alpha _t(T_n)}\underset{U𝒰}{}E_{g_3^U}^{\alpha _t(U)}\right)^1𝑑L_^2\\ \hfill =\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\dot{\sigma }_t(T_i)C_0(\phi \left(E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}\right)^1,E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}T_i)\\ \hfill +\underset{U𝒰}{}\dot{\sigma }_t(U)C_0(\phi \left(E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}\right)^1,E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}g_3^U).\end{array}$$

As the finite family $`\{T_1,T_2,\mathrm{},T_n\}`$ converges to $`\{TT_O;,T<𝒰\}`$, $`E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}`$ converges to

$$E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}=\stackrel{}{\underset{T<𝒰}{}}E_T^{\alpha _t(T)}\underset{U𝒰}{}E_{g_3^U}^{\alpha _t(U)}$$

We now pass to the limit in Equation 19 and conclude:

###### Lemma 14.

(20)
$$\begin{array}{c}\frac{d}{dt}_{G(^2)}\phi \left(E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}\right)^1𝑑L_^2\hfill \\ \hfill =\underset{T<𝒰}{}\dot{\sigma }_t(T)C_0(\phi \left(E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}\right)^1,E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}T)+\underset{U𝒰}{}\dot{\sigma }_t(U)C_0(\phi \left(E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}\right)^1,E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}g_3^U)\end{array}$$

for $`t`$ sufficiently small.

###### Proof of Lemma 14.

As $`\{T_1,T_2,\mathrm{},T_n\}`$ converges to $`\{T^{}T_O;T^{}<𝒰\}`$, the homeomorphism $`E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}`$ of $`^2`$ uniformly converges to $`E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}`$. In particular, for a fixed $`T`$, $`C_0(\phi \left(E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}\right)^1,E_{T_1T_2,\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}T)`$ converges to $`C_0(\phi \left(E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}\right)^1,E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}T)`$. Similarly, for $`U𝒰`$, $`C_0(\phi \left(E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}\right)^1,E_{T_1T_2,\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}g_3^U)`$ converges to $`C_0(\phi \left(E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}\right)^1,E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}g_3^U)`$. To justify Equation 20, we need a uniform estimate for the convergence of the sums in the right hand sides of Equations 19 and 20.

For a component $`T`$ of $`\stackrel{~}{S}\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$, the refinement Lemma 9 of Proposition 3 shows that

(21)
$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill C_0(\phi \left(E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}\right)^1,E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}T)& =C_0(\phi ^{},T^{})\hfill \\ & \phi ^{}_{g_3^T^{},\nu }\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_T^{}}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T^{}\right|}\hfill \end{array}$$

if we set $`T^{}=E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}T`$ and $`\phi ^{}=\phi \left(E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}\right)^1`$ to simplify the notation.

###### Sublemma 15.

If $`t`$ is sufficiently small, then $`\left|D_T^{}D_T\right|1`$ and $`\left|u_T^{}u_T\right|\left|\alpha _t(T)\right|+1`$.

###### Proof of Sublemma 15.

We distinguish cases, according to whether $`T`$ is one of the $`T_i`$ or not.

If $`T=T_{i_0}`$, we can arrange the indexing so that those $`T_i`$ with $`T_i<T`$ are exactly those with $`i<i_0`$ (while keeping the property that $`T_i<T_ji<j`$). Then,

$$T^{}=I_{g_3^{T_1}}^{\alpha _t(T_1)}I_{g_{k_1}^{T_1}}^{\alpha _t(T_1)}I_{g_3^{T_2}}^{\alpha _t(T_2)}I_{g_{k_2}^{T_2}}^{\alpha _t(T_2)}\mathrm{}I_{g_3^{T_{i_01}}}^{\alpha _t(T_{i_01})}I_{g_{k_{i_01}}^{T_{i_01}}}^{\alpha _t(T_{i_01})}I_{g_3^{T_{i_0}}}^{\alpha _t(T_{i_0})}T$$

where $`g_{k_i}^{T_i}`$ is the one among the two geodesics $`g_1^{T_i}`$ and $`g_2^{T_i}`$ that separates $`T`$ from the base point $`O`$, and where $`I_g^a`$ is the isometry of $`^2`$ that acts by translation of $`a`$ along the oriented geodesic $`g`$.

Let $`T^{\prime \prime }=I_{g_3^{T_{i_0}}}^{\alpha _t(T_{i_0})}T`$. Then $`D_{T^{\prime \prime }}=D_T`$ and $`u_{T^{\prime \prime }}=u_T+\alpha _t(T)`$. On the other hand, it is proved in \[Bo2, §5\] that, if $`\alpha _t`$ is sufficiently small (depending on the metric $`m_0`$) and therefore if $`t`$ is sufficiently small,

$$I_{g_3^{T_1}}^{\alpha _t(T_1)}I_{g_{k_1}^{T_1}}^{\alpha _t(T_1)}I_{g_3^{T_2}}^{\alpha _t(T_2)}I_{g_{k_2}^{T_2}}^{\alpha _t(T_2)}\mathrm{}I_{g_3^{T_{i_01}}}^{\alpha _t(T_{i_01})}I_{g_{k_{i_01}}^{T_{i_01}}}^{\alpha _t(T_{i_01})}$$

remains bounded in the isometry group of $`^2`$ (the bound depends on $`𝒰`$, but not the condition on $`t`$).

Consequently, $`\left|D_T^{}D_{T^{\prime \prime }}\right|`$ and $`\left|u_T^{}u_{T^{\prime \prime }}\right|`$ stay bounded, which proves Sublemma 15 when $`T`$ is equal to some $`T_{i_0}`$.

The argument is similar when $`T`$ is equal to no $`T_{i_0}`$ (with no term $`I_{g_3^{T_{i_0}}}^{\alpha _t(T_{i_0})}`$), and leads to $`\left|D_T^{}D_T\right|1`$ and $`\left|u_T^{}u_T\right|1`$ in this case. ∎

###### Sublemma 16.

$$\phi ^{}_{g_3^T^{},\nu }\phi _\nu $$

###### Proof of Sublemma 16.

By definition of $`\phi ^{}_{g,\nu }`$ in Equation 12, and since $`T^{}=E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}T`$ and $`\phi ^{}=\phi \left(E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}\right)^1`$,

$$\phi ^{}_{g_3^T^{},\nu }\phi _{g_3^T,\nu }\mathrm{max}\{1,\mathrm{e}^{\nu \left(D_TD_T^{}\right)}\}\phi _\nu $$

where the second estimate comes from Sublemma 15 and from the fact that $`\phi _{g_3^T,\nu }\phi _\nu `$. ∎

Applying Sublemmas 15 and 16 to Equation 21, we conclude that

(22)
$$C_0(\phi \left(E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}\right)^1,E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}T)\phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{\left|\alpha _t(T)\right|}\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_T}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}$$

From Equation 19, we obtain

(23)
$$\begin{array}{c}_{G(^2)}\phi \left(E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}\right)^1𝑑L_^2_{G(^2)}\phi 𝑑L_^2\hfill \\ \hfill =_0^t\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\dot{\sigma }_u(T_i)C_0(\phi \left(E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _u}\right)^1,E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _u}T_i)du\\ \hfill +_0^t\underset{U𝒰}{}\dot{\sigma }_u(U)C_0(\phi \left(E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _u}\right)^1,E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _u}g_3^U)du.\end{array}$$

As $`\{T_1,T_2,\mathrm{},T_n\}`$ tends to $`\{TT_O;,T<𝒰\}`$, the homeomorphism $`E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _t}`$ of $`^2`$ uniformly converges to $`E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}`$. In particular, for a fixed $`T`$, $`C_0(\phi \left(E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _u}\right)^1,E_{T_1T_2,\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _u}T)`$ converges to $`C_0(\phi \left(E_𝒰^{\alpha _u}\right)^1,E_𝒰^{\alpha _u}T)`$ and $`C_0(\phi \left(E_{T_1T_2\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _u}\right)^1,E_{T_1T_2,\mathrm{}T_n}^{\alpha _u}g_3^T)`$ converges to $`C_0(\phi \left(E_𝒰^{\alpha _u}\right)^1,E_𝒰^{\alpha _u}g_3^T)`$. Combining Equation 22 and Lemma 12, we conclude by dominated convergence that

(24)
$$\begin{array}{c}_{G(^2)}\phi \left(E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}\right)^1𝑑L_^2_{G(^2)}\phi 𝑑L_^2\hfill \\ \hfill =_0^t\underset{T<𝒰}{}\dot{\sigma }_u(T)C_0(\phi \left(E_𝒰^{\alpha _u}\right)^1,E_𝒰^{\alpha _u}T)du\\ \hfill +_0^t\underset{U𝒰}{}\dot{\sigma }_u(U)C_0(\phi \left(E_𝒰^{\alpha _u}\right)^1,E_𝒰^{\alpha _u}g_3^U)du\end{array}$$

for $`t`$ sufficiently small. Lemma 14 then follows by differentiating the two sides of Equation 24. ∎

We now let the spanning family $`𝒰`$ uniformly tend to infinity. Recall that this means that the set $`\{TT_O;T<𝒰\}`$ converges to the set of all components $`TT_O`$ of $`^2\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$. We will do this in a controlled way.

Recall that $`O_T`$ denotes the center of the ideal triangle $`T`$. For $`n`$, let $`𝒱_n`$ denote the set of those components $`TT_O`$ of $`G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$ such that $`d(O,O_T)n`$. Note that the set of all $`O_T`$ consists of finitely many orbits of the action of $`\pi _1(S)`$ on $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$, one orbit for each component of $`S\lambda `$, and is consequently locally finite. It follows that $`𝒱_n`$ is finite. Let $`𝒰_n𝒱_n`$ consist of all elements of $`𝒱_n`$ which are maximal for $`<`$. By construction, $`𝒰_n`$ is a spanning family.

As $`n`$ tends to $`\mathrm{}`$, $`𝒱_n`$ converges to the set of all components of $`\stackrel{~}{S}\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ which are different from $`T_O`$, and it follows that $`𝒰_n`$ uniformly converges to infinity.

We will apply Equation 20 of Lemma 14 to $`𝒰=𝒰_n`$, and let $`n`$ tend to $`\mathrm{}`$.

###### Lemma 17.

$$\underset{n\mathrm{}}{lim}\underset{U𝒰_n}{}\dot{\sigma }_t(U)C_0(\phi \left(E_{𝒰_n}^{\alpha _t}\right)^1,E_{𝒰_n}^{\alpha _t}g_3^U)=0$$

and this uniformly in $`t`$.

###### Proof of Lemma 17.

Let us begin with the case where $`t=0`$. Using a train track $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ carrying $`\lambda `$ as in the proof of Proposition 11, we have that $`\dot{\sigma }_0(U)\dot{\sigma }_0_\mathrm{\Phi }d(O,O_U)\dot{\sigma }_0_\mathrm{\Phi }n`$ for every $`U𝒰_n`$.

By Proposition 10, $`C_0(\phi ,g_3^U)\phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_U}`$. The angle under which $`g_3^U`$ is seen from the base point $`O`$ is $`\mathrm{e}^{D_U}`$. Because the $`U𝒰_n`$ are pairwise non comparable, the angular sectors under which the corresponding $`g_3^U`$ are seen from $`O`$ are disjoint. We conclude that $`_{U𝒰_n}\mathrm{e}^{D_U}1`$. Therefore,

$$\begin{array}{c}\underset{U𝒰_n}{}\dot{\sigma }_0(U)C_0(\phi ,g_3^U)\phi _\nu \dot{\sigma }_0_\mathrm{\Phi }n\underset{U𝒰_n}{}\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_U}\hfill \\ \hfill \phi _\nu \dot{\sigma }_0_\mathrm{\Phi }n\mathrm{e}^{\nu \delta _n}\underset{U𝒰_n}{}\mathrm{e}^{D_U}\phi _\nu \dot{\sigma }_0_\mathrm{\Phi }n\mathrm{e}^{\nu \delta _n}\end{array}$$

if $`\delta _n`$ is the infimum of the distance $`D_U`$ over $`U𝒰_n`$.

If $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the diameter of $`S`$ for the metric $`m_0`$, every point of $`\stackrel{~}{S}^2`$ is at distance at most $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ from some $`O_T`$. It follows that, for every $`T`$, there is a $`T^{}>T`$ such that $`d(O,O_T^{})D_T+2\mathrm{\Delta }`$. Since $`𝒰_n`$ consists of the maximal elements of $`𝒱_n`$, we conclude that $`\delta _nn2\mathrm{\Delta }`$. As a consequence,

$$\underset{U𝒰_n}{}\dot{\sigma }_0(U)C_0(\phi ,g_3^U)\phi _\nu \dot{\sigma }_0_\mathrm{\Phi }n\mathrm{e}^{\nu n},$$

which tends to $`0`$ as $`n`$ tends to $`\mathrm{}`$.

For a general $`t`$, note that $`E_{𝒰_n}^{\alpha _t}g_3^U=E^{\alpha _t}g_3^U`$ if $`U𝒰_n`$. The homeomorphism $`E^{\alpha _t}=\mathrm{\Theta }_{m_t}\mathrm{\Theta }_{m_0}^1`$ of $`_{\mathrm{}}^2`$ is Hölder continuous with uniformly bounded Hölder exponent and norm (depending on a compact subset of Teichmüller space containing the $`m_t`$). Since the angle under which $`E^{\alpha _t}g_3^U`$ is seen from $`O`$ is $`\mathrm{e}^{D_U^t}`$, where $`D_U^t`$ is the distance from $`O`$ to $`E^{\alpha _t}g_3^U`$, it follows that $`D_U^t\mu D_U`$ for some constant $`\mu >0`$. In particular, the infimum $`\delta _n^t`$ of all $`D_U^t`$ with $`U𝒰_n`$ is such that $`\delta _n^t\mu \delta _n\mu n2\mu \mathrm{\Delta }`$. Proposition 10 gives that

$$C_0(\phi \left(E_{𝒰_n}^{\alpha _t}\right)^1,E_{𝒰_n}^{\alpha _t}g_3^U)\phi \left(E_{𝒰_n}^{\alpha _t}\right)^1_{E_{𝒰_n}^{\alpha _t}g_3^U,\nu }\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_U^t}.$$

By definition of $`_{g,\nu }`$, we have

$$\phi \left(E_{𝒰_n}^{\alpha _t}\right)^1_{E_{𝒰_n}^{\alpha _t}g_3^U,\nu }\phi _{g_3^U,\nu }\mathrm{max}\{1,\mathrm{e}^{\nu (D_U^tD_U)}\}\phi _\nu \mathrm{max}\{1,\mathrm{e}^{\nu (D_U^tD_U)}\}.$$

Decomposing $`𝒰_n`$ as the union of the set $`𝒰_n^+`$ of those $`U𝒰_n`$ with $`D_U^tD_U`$ and the set $`𝒰_n^{}`$ of those $`U`$ with $`D_U^t<D_U`$, we conclude that

$$\begin{array}{c}\underset{U𝒰_n}{}\dot{\sigma }_t(U)C_0(\phi \left(E_{𝒰_n}^{\alpha _t}\right)^1,E_{𝒰_n}^{\alpha _t}g_3^U)\hfill \\ \hfill \phi _\nu \dot{\sigma }_0n\underset{U𝒰_n^+}{}\mathrm{e}^{D_U^t\nu D_U}+\phi _\nu \dot{\sigma }_0n\underset{U𝒰_n^{}}{}\mathrm{e}^{D_U^t\nu D_U^t}\\ \hfill \phi _\nu \dot{\sigma }_0n\left(\mathrm{e}^{\nu \delta _n}+\mathrm{e}^{\nu \delta _n^t}\right)\underset{U𝒰_n}{}\mathrm{e}^{D_U^t}\\ \hfill \phi _\nu \dot{\sigma }_0n\left(\mathrm{e}^{\nu n}+\mathrm{e}^{\nu \mu n}\right)\end{array}$$

since $`_{U𝒰_n}\mathrm{e}^{D_U^t}1`$, as in the case where $`t=0`$. This completes the proof of Lemma 17. ∎

###### Lemma 18.

For $`t`$ sufficiently small, the sum

$$\underset{T}{}\dot{\sigma }_t(T)C_0(\phi \left(E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}\right)^1,E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}T)$$

converges, uniformly in $`𝒰`$ and in $`t`$.

###### Proof.

By Lemma 9 and by definition of $`_{g,\nu }`$,

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill C_0(\phi \left(E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}\right)^1,E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}T)& \phi \left(E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}\right)^1_{g_3^T^{},\nu }\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_T^{}}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T^{}\right|}\hfill \\ & \phi _\nu \mathrm{max}\{1,\mathrm{e}^{\nu (D_T^{}D_T)}\}\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu )D_T^{}}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T^{}\right|}\hfill \end{array}$$

if we set $`T^{}=E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}T`$.

Note that $`T^{}=E^{\alpha _t}T`$ when $`T<𝒰`$, and $`T^{}=T`$ otherwise. In particular, in the first case, $`D_T^{}`$ is the $`m_t`$–distance from the base point $`O`$ to the $`m_t`$–geodesic triangle in $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$ corresponding to $`T`$. As a consequence, $`D_T^{}D_T`$ in both cases, and we conclude that

$$C_0(\phi \left(E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}\right)^1,E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}T)\phi _\nu \mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu ^{})D_T^{}}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T^{}\right|}$$

for some $`\nu ^{}>0`$ depending on $`\nu `$ and on a compact subset of $`𝒯(S)`$ containing the image of the curve $`tm_t`$. Therefore, $`_T\dot{\sigma }_t(T)C_0(\phi \left(E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}\right)^1,E_𝒰^{\alpha _t}T)`$ is bounded by the sum of $`\phi _\nu _T\dot{\sigma }_t(T)\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu ^{})D_T}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_T\right|}`$ and $`\phi _\nu _T\dot{\sigma }_t(T)\mathrm{e}^{(1+\nu ^{})D_{T^{\prime \prime }}}\mathrm{e}^{\left|u_{T^{\prime \prime }}\right|}`$, where $`T`$ ranges over all components of $`\stackrel{~}{S}\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ that are different from $`T_O`$, and where $`T^{\prime \prime }=E^{\alpha _t}T`$ in the second sum. These two sums converge by Lemma 12, applied to the metric $`m_t`$ instead of $`m_0`$ for the second sum. This proves Lemma 18. ∎

If we apply Equation 24 to $`𝒰=𝒰_n`$ and let $`n`$ tend to $`\mathrm{}`$ we then conclude, by dominated convergence and by Lemma 17, that

(25)
$$\begin{array}{c}_{G(^2)}\phi \left(E^{\alpha _t}\right)^1𝑑L_^2_{G(^2)}\phi 𝑑L_^2\hfill \\ \hfill =_0^t\underset{T}{}\dot{\sigma }_u(T)C_0(\phi \left(E^{\alpha _u}\right)^1,E^{\alpha _u}T)du.\end{array}$$

Differentiating both sides of Equation 25, it follows that

$$\begin{array}{c}\frac{d}{dt}_{G(\stackrel{~}{S})}\phi 𝑑L_{m_t}_{|t=0}\hfill \\ \hfill =\frac{d}{dt}_{G(^2)}\phi \left(E^{\alpha _t}\right)^1𝑑L_^2_{|t=0}=\underset{T}{}\dot{\sigma }_0(T)C_0(\phi ,T)\end{array}$$

which completes the proof of Theorem 13. ∎

###### Theorem 19.

With the data of Theorem 13, the map $`T_{m_0}L(\dot{m}_0)`$ which to a Hölder continuous function $`\phi :G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$ with compact support associates

$$T_{m_0}L(\dot{m}_0)(\phi )=\frac{d}{dt}_{G(\stackrel{~}{S})}\phi 𝑑L_{m_t}_{|t=0}$$

is a Hölder geodesic current $`T_{m_0}L(\dot{m}_0)(S)`$ which depends only on the tangent vector $`\dot{m}_0=\frac{d}{dt}m_t_{|t=0}T_{m_0}𝒯(S)`$. The map

$$T_{m_0}L:T_{m_0}𝒯(S)(S)$$

so defined is linear, and depends continuously on $`m_0`$.

###### Proof.

By Theorem 13 and Proposition 11, $`T_{m_0}L(\dot{m}_0)`$ defines a Hölder distribution on the space $`G\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$. Also, since $`L_{m_t}`$ is invariant under the action of $`\pi _1(S)`$, so is its derivative $`T_{m_0}L(\dot{m}_0)`$. (Note that it is less obvious to see the invariance directly from the formula $`T_{m_0}L(\dot{m}_0)(\phi )=_T\dot{\sigma }_0(T)C_0(\phi ,T)`$). As a consequence, $`T_{m_0}L(\dot{m}_0)`$ is a Hölder geodesic current.

Since the map which to a hyperbolic metric $`m𝒯(S)`$ associates its shearing cocycle $`\sigma (\lambda )`$ is a local diffeomorphism, $`\dot{\sigma }_0(\lambda )`$ depends linearly on the tangent vector $`\dot{m}_0T_{m_0}𝒯(S)`$. It follows that $`T_{m_0}L(\dot{m}_0)(\phi )=_T\dot{\sigma }_0(T)C_0(\phi ,T)`$ depends linearly on $`\dot{m}_0`$. In other words, the map $`T_{m_0}L`$ is linear.

Finally, for two geodesics $`g`$, $`hG\left(\stackrel{~}{S}\right)`$, the cosine $`\mathrm{cos}\theta (g,h)`$ depends continuously on the metric $`m_0`$ used to measure the angle $`\theta (g,h)`$. By bounded convergence, it follows that each $`C_0(\phi ,T)`$ is a continuous function of $`m_0`$. In addition, the arguments of the proof of Proposition 11 show that the convergence of the series $`_T\dot{\sigma }_0(T)C_0(\phi ,T)`$ is uniform as $`m_0`$ stays in a compact subset of $`𝒯(S)`$. Consequently, for every $`\phi `$, $`T_{m_0}L(\dot{m}_0)(\phi )=_T\dot{\sigma }_0(T)C_0(\phi ,T)`$ depends continuously on $`m_0`$. In other words, $`T_{m_0}L(\dot{m}_0)(S)`$ is a continuous function of $`m_0`$ and $`\dot{m}_0`$. ∎