Hierarchical hyperbolicity, ball quotients, and the moduli space of smooth cubic surfaces

Source abstract

We prove that the orbifold fundamental group of the moduli space of smooth complex cubic surfaces is a hierarchically hyperbolic group. This places it within a powerful geometric framework whose prototypical examples are mapping class groups. The proof uses a known incomplete complex hyperbolic metric on the moduli space, and applies in a broader setting which includes a number of other moduli spaces.