Related papers: Connected components of the compactification of re…

We explicitly describe the Teichmuller space TH_n of hyperelliptic surfaces in terms of natural and effective coordinates as the space of certain (2n-6)-tuples of distinct points on the ideal boundary of the Poincare disc. We essentially…

We prove that the Teichm\"uller space of the Hirsch foliation (a minimal foliation of a closed 3-manifold by non-compact hyperbolic surfaces) is homeomorphic to the space of closed curves in the plane. This allows us to show that that the…

This paper addresses some conjectures and questions regarding the absolute and relative compactifications of the $\SL(2,\C)$-character variety of an $n$-punctured Riemann surface without boundary. We study a class of projective…

Let $\Gamma$ be a countable discrete group. Given any sequence $(f_n)_{n\geq 1}$ of $\ell^p$-normalized functions ($p\in [1,2)$), consider the associated positive definite matrix coefficients $\langle f_n, \rho(\cdot) f_n\rangle$ of the…

We study relations between reflections in (positive or negative) points in the complex hyperbolic plane. It is easy to see that the reflections in the points q_1,q_2 obtained from p_1,p_2 by moving p_1,p_2 along the geodesic generated by…

Haefliger-Thurston's conjecture predicts that Haefliger's classifying space for $C^r$-foliations of codimension $n$ whose normal bundles are trivial is $2n$-connected. In this paper, we confirm this conjecture for PL foliations of…

Let G be a split semisimple algebraic group with trivial center. Let S be a compact oriented surface, with or without boundary. We define {\it positive} representations of the fundamental group of S to G(R), construct explicitly all…

We describe smooth compactifications of certain families of reductive homogeneous spaces such as group manifolds for classical Lie groups, or pseudo-Riemannian analogues of real hyperbolic spaces and their complex and quaternionic…

The wreath product W(r,n) of the cyclic group of order r and the symmetric group S_n acts on the corresponding projective hyperplane complement, and on its wonderful compactification as defined by De Concini and Procesi. We give a formula…

Geometrization says `` any closed oriented three-manifold which is prime (not a connected sum) carries one of the eight Thurston geometries OR it has incompressible torus walls whose complementary components each carry one of four…

These lecture notes are based on lectures given by the author at the summer school "Arrangements in Pyr\'en\'ees" in June 2012. We survey and compare various compactifications of complex hyperplane arrangement complements. In particular, we…

We initiate the study of characters of surface groups and their corresponding tracial representations. We show that any tracial representation can be approximated arbitrarily well in the Wasserstein topology by factorial tracial…

The Andreev-Thurston Circle Packing Theorem is generalized to packings of convex bodies in planar simply connected domains. This turns out to be a useful tool for constructing conformal and quasiconformal mappings with interesting geometric…

The first part of this paper surveys several characterizations of Teichm\"uller space as a subset of the space of representation of the fundamental group of a surface into PSL(2,R). Special emphasis is put on (bounded) cohomological…

In this paper we construct a compactification for the parameter space of convex projective structures on a fixed n-manifold M. This parameter space is a closed semi-algebraic subset of the variety of characters of representations of the…

Let $S$ be a punctured Riemann surface with Euler characteristic $\chi(S)<0$. For any unitary representation $\rho: \pi_1(S) \to U(N)$, we introduce its renormalized energy and its harmonic representatives, which are equivariant harmonic…

We describe a family of representations of $\pi_1(\Sigma)$ in PU(2,1), where $\Sigma$ is a hyperbolic Riemann surface with at least one deleted point. This family is obtained by a bending process associated to an ideal triangulation of…

Using Lusztig's total positivity in split real Lie groups V. Fock and A. Goncharov have introduced spaces of positive (framed) representations. For general semisimple Lie groups a generalization of Lusztig's total positivity was recently…

Let M be the moduli space of irreducible flat PSL(2,R) connections on a punctured surface of finite type with parabolic holonomies around punctures. By using a notion of admissibility of an ideal arc, M is covered by dense open subsets…

We investigate the $\mathcal F$-Borel complexity of topological spaces in their different compactifcations. We provide a simple proof of the fact that a space can have arbitrarily many different complexities in different compactifications.…