Quasi-Fuchsian vs Negative curvature metrics on surface groups

Abstract

We compare two families of left-invariant metrics on a surface group $\Gamma=\pi_1(\Sigma)$ in the context of course-geometry. One family comes from Riemannian metrics of negative curvature on the the surface $\Sigma$, and another from quasi-Fuchsian representations of $\Gamma$. We show that the Teichmuller space $\Teich(\Sigma)$ is the only common part of these two families, even when viewed from the coarse-geometric perspective.