Pants decomposition ($\{{\gamma }_i{\}}_{i=1}^{3g-3}$)

A collection of disjoint essential simple closed curves that cuts a closed genus-$g$ surface into $2g-2$ surfaces of type pair of pants. There are $3g-3$ curves. Geodesic representatives are used for Fenchel–Nielsen coordinates.

For fixed $g\ge 2$, a constant $B_g$ bounds all cuff lengths in some pants decomposition of every closed genus-$g$ hyperbolic surface. Together with Fenchel–Nielsen coordinates this implies Mumford's compactness theorem.

For a fixed pants decomposition, the positive cuff lengths and real twist parameters give coordinates on Teichmüller space. With twists measured in length units, a full Dehn twist changes ${\tau }_i$ by ${\ell }_i$; with angle units it changes the twist by $2\pi$.