Lines of Minima with No End in Thurston’s Boundary of Teichmüller Space

Let ν+ and ν− be two measured laminations which fill up a hyperbolic surface. Kerckhoff [Duke Math. J. 65 (1992), 187–213] defines a line of minima as a family of surfaces where convex combinations of the hyperbolic length functions of ν+ and ν− are minimum. This is a proper curve in the Teichmüller space. We show that there exists a line of minima which does not converge in the Thurston compactification of the Teichmüller space of a compact Riemann surface. We also show that the limit set of the line of minima is contained in a simplex on the Thurston boundary.