Prescribing metrics on the boundary of convex cores of globally hyperbolic maximal compact AdS 3-manifolds

Abstract: We consider globally hyperbolic maximal anti de Sitter 3-manifolds $M$ with a closed Cauchy surface $S$ of genus greater than one and prove that any pair of hyperbolic metrics on $S$ can be realized as the boundary metrics of the convex core of a maximal globally hyperbolic anti de Sitter 3-manifold structure on $M$. This answers the existence part of a question of Mess about the unique realization of such metrics. Our theorem has a nice formulation purely in terms of 2-dimensional Teichm\"uller theory and earthquakes.