Milin's coefficients, complex geometry of Teichmüller spaces and variational calculus for univalent functions

We investigate the invariant metrics and complex geodesics in the universal Teichm\"{u}ller space and Teichm\"{u}ller space of the punctured disk using Milin's coefficient inequalities. This technique allows us to establish that all non-expanding invariant metrics in either of these spaces coincide with its intrinsic Teichm\"{u}ller metric. Other applications concern the variational theory for univalent functions with quasiconformal extension. It turns out that geometric features caused by the equality of metrics and connection with complex geodesics provide deep distortion results for various classes of such functions and create new phenomena which do not appear in the classical geometric function theory.