Bottlenecks for Weil-Petersson geodesics

Abstract: We introduce a method for constructing Weil-Petersson (WP) geodesics with certain behavior in the Teichm\"{u}ller space. This allows us to study the itinerary of geodesics among the strata of the WP completion and its relation to subsurface projection coefficients of their end invariants. As an application we demonstrate the disparity between short curves in the universal curve over a WP geodesic and those of the associated hyperbolic $3$-manifold.