Harmonic Splittings of Surfaces
  We give a proof, using harmonic maps from disks to real trees, of Skora's theorem (Morgan-Otal (1993), Skora (1990), originally conjectured by Shalen): if G is the fundamental group of a surface of genus at least 2, then any small minimal G-action on a real tree is dual to the lift of a measured foliation.   Analytic tools like the maximum principle are used to simplify the usual combinatorial topology arguments. Other analytic objects associated to a harmonic map, such as the Hopf differential and the moduli space of harmonic maps, are also introduced as tools for understanding the action of surface groups on trees. 
Benson Farb, Michael Wolf