The goal of this note is to show that the Riemann-Hilbert problem to find multivalued analytic functions with $SL(2,mathbb{C})$-valued monodromy on Riemann surfaces of genus zero with $n$ punctures can be solved by taking suitable linear combinations
of the conformal blocks of Liouville theory at $c=1$. This implies a similar representation for the isomonodromic tau-function. In the case $n=4$ we thereby get a proof of the relation between tau-functions and conformal blocks discovered in cite{GIL}. We briefly discuss a possible application of our results to the study of relations between certain $mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric gauge theories and conformal field theory.
We revisit the definition of the 6j-symbols from the modular double of U_q(sl(2,R)), referred to as b-6j symbols. Our new results are (i) the identification of particularly natural normalization conditions, and (ii) new integral representations for t
his object. This is used to briefly discuss possible applications to quantum hyperbolic geometry, and to the study of certain supersymmetric gauge theories. We show, in particular, that the b-6j symbol has leading semiclassical asymptotics given by the volume of a non-ideal tetrahedron. We furthermore observe a close relation with the problem to quantize natural Darboux coordinates for moduli spaces of flat connections on Riemann surfaces related to the Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates. Our new integral representations finally indicate a possible interpretation of the b-6j symbols as partition functions of three-dimensional N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories.
