Classical geometry from the quantum Liouville theory

Zamolodchikov's recursion relations are used to analyze the existence and approximations to the classical conformal block in the case of four parabolic weights. Strong numerical evidence is found that the saddle point momenta arising in the classical limit of the DOZZ quantum Lionville theory are simply related to the geodesic length functions of the hyperbolic geometry on the 4-punctured Riemann sphere. Such relation provides new powerful methods for both numerical and analytical calculations of these functions. The consistency conditions for the factorization of the 4-point classical Lionville action in different channels are numerically verified. The factorization yields efficient numerical methods to calculate the 4-point classical action and, by the Polyakov conjecture, the accessory parameters of the Fuchsian uniformization of the 4-punctured sphere. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.