Teichmüller spaces, polynomial loci, and degeneration in spaces of algebraic correspondences

Abstract We develop an analog of the notion of a character variety in the context of algebraic correspondences. It turns out that matings of certain Fuchsian groups and polynomials are contained in this ambient character variety. This gives rise to two different analogs of the Bers slice by fixing either the polynomial or the Fuchsian group. The Bers-like slices are homeomorphic copies of Teichmüller spaces or combinatorial copies of polynomial connectedness loci. We show that these slices are bounded in the character variety, thus proving the analog of a theorem of Bers. To produce compactifications of the Bers-like slices, we initiate a study of degeneration of algebraic correspondences on trees of Riemann spheres, revealing a new degeneration phenomenon in conformal dynamics. There is no available analog of Sullivan’s “no invariant line field” theorem in our context. Nevertheless, for the four times punctured sphere, we show that the compactifications of Teichmüller spaces are naturally homeomorphic.