Quasisymmetric rigidity of the Brownian sphere

Abstract

The Brownian sphere, also known as the Brownian map, is a canonical random metric measure space homeomorphic to the two-dimensional sphere $\mathbf S^2$. It can be interpreted as the uniform measure on surfaces homeomorphic to $\mathbf S^2$, in the sense that it arises as the scaling limit of many natural models of random planar maps chosen uniformly from a given class. It is also equivalent to the $\sqrt{8/3}$-Liouville quantum gravity sphere. We prove that the Brownian sphere is quasisymmetrically rigid, meaning that, almost surely, it has no nontrivial quasisymmetric automorphisms. We also show that two independent Brownian spheres are almost surely not quasisymmetrically equivalent. Our argument also gives a new proof that the conformal structure of the Brownian sphere is almost surely determined by its metric structure.