Asymptoticity of grafting and Teichmüller rays

Abstract

We show that any grafting ray in Teichmüller space determined by an arational lamination or a multicurve is (strongly) asymptotic to a Teichmüller geodesic ray. As a consequence the projection of a generic grafting ray to the moduli space is dense. We also show that the set of points in Teichmüller space obtained by integer ($2\pi$–) graftings on any hyperbolic surface projects to a dense set in the moduli space. This implies that the conformal surfaces underlying complex projective structures with any fixed Fuchsian holonomy are dense in the moduli space.