Moebius rigidity for simply connected, negatively curved surfaces

Abstract: Let $X, Y$ be complete, simply connected Riemannian surfaces with pinched negative curvature $-b^2 \leq K \leq -1$. We show that if $f : \partial X \to \partial Y$ is a Moebius homeomorphism between the boundaries at infinity of $X, Y$, then $f$ extends to an isometry $F : X \to Y$. This can be viewed as a generalization of Otal's marked length spectrum rigidity theorem for closed, negatively curved surfaces, in the sense that Otal's theorem asserts that if $X, Y$ admit properly discontinuous, cocompact, free actions by groups of isometries and the boundary map $f$ is Moebius and equivariant with respect to these actions then it extends to an isometry. In our case there are no cocompactness or equivariance assumptions, indeed the isometry groups of $X, Y$ may be trivial.