We present effective methods to compute equivariant harmonic maps from the universal cover of a surface into a nonpositively curved space. By discretizing the theory appropriately, we show that the energy functional is strongly convex and derive convergence of the discrete heat flow to the energy minimizer, with explicit convergence rate. We also examine center of mass methods, after showing a generalized mean value property for harmonic maps. We feature a concrete illustration of these methods with Harmony, a computer software that we developed in C++, whose main functionality is to numerically compute and display equivariant harmonic maps.

This article investigates the complex symplectic geometry of the deformation space of complex projective structures on a closed oriented surface of genus at least 2. The cotangent symplectic structure given by the Schwarzian parametrization is studied carefully and compared to the Goldman symplectic structure on the character variety, clarifying and generalizing a theorem of S. Kawai

Given a closed surface S of genus at least 2, we compare the symplectic structure of Taubes' moduli space of minimal hyperbolic germs with the Goldman symplectic structure on the character variety X (S, P SL(2, C)) and the affine cotangent symplectic structure on the space of complex projective structures CP(S) given by the Schwarzian parametrization. This is done in restriction to the moduli space of almost-Fuchsian structures by involving a notion of renormalized volume, used to relate the geometry of a minimal surface in a hyperbolic 3-manifold to the geometry of its ideal conformal boundary.