An extension of the Thurston metric to projective filling currents

Abstract: We study the geometry of the space of projectivized filling geodesic currents $\mathbb P \mathcal C_{fill}(S)$. Bonahon showed that Teichm\"uller space, $\mathcal T(S)$ embeds into $\mathbb P \mathcal C_{fill}(S)$. We extend the symmetrized Thurston metric from $\mathcal T(S)$ to the entire (projectivized) space of filling currents, and we show that $\mathcal T(S)$ is isometrically embedded into the bigger space. Moreover, we show that there is no quasi-isometric projection back down to $\mathcal T(S)$. Lastly, we study the geometry of a length-minimizing projection from $\mathbb P \mathcal C_{fill}(S)$ to $\mathcal T(S)$ defined previously by Hensel and the author.