Related papers: The geometry of maximal representations of surface…

These notes are an extended version of a talk given by the author in the seminar "Theorie Spectrale et Geometrie" at the Institut Fourier in No- vember 2016. We present here some aspects of a work in collaboration with B. Collier and N.…

For any maximal surface group representation into $\mathrm{SO}_0(2,n+1)$, we introduce a non-degenerate scalar product on the the first cohomology group of the surface with values in the associated flat bundle. In particular, it gives rise…

We study maximal representations of surface groups $\rho:\pi_1(\Sigma)\to\mathrm{SO}_0(2,n+1)$ via the introduction of $\rho$-invariant pleated surfaces inside the pseudo-Riemannian space $\mathbb{H}^{2,n}$ associated to maximal geodesic…

Let G be a connected semisimple Lie group such that the associated symmetric space X is Hermitian and let Gamma be the fundamental group of a compact orientable surface of genus at least 2. We survey the study of maximal representations,…

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…

We study the character variety of representations of the fundamental group of a closed surface of genus $g\geq2$ into the Lie group SO(n,n+1) using Higgs bundles. For each integer $0<d\leq n(2g-2),$ we show there is a smooth connected…

In this paper we describe the space of maximal components of the character variety of surface group representations into PSp(4,R) and Sp(4,R). For every rank 2 real Lie group of Hermitian type, we construct a mapping class group invariant…

In 1992, Hitchin used his theory of Higgs bundles to construct an important family of representations of the fundamental group of a closed, oriented surface of genus at least two into the split real form of a complex adjoint simple Lie…

Let $S$ be a closed surface of genus at least $2$. For each maximal representation $\rho: \pi_1(S)\rightarrow\mathsf{Sp}(4,\mathbb{R})$ in one of the $2g-3$ exceptional connected components, we prove there is a unique conformal structure on…

We introduce para-complex and pseudo-Riemannian geometric methods for the study of representations of surface groups in $\mathrm{SL}(2m+1,\mathbb{R})$. For $m=1$ our techniques allow to recover several known results for Hitchin…

We study the geometry of hyperconvex representations of surface groups in ${\rm PSL}(d,\mathbb{C})$ and their deformation spaces: We produce a natural holomorphic extension of the classical Ahlfors--Bers map to a product of Teichm\"uller…

We show that for every nonelementary representation of a surface group into $SL(2,{\mathbb C})$ there is a Riemann surface structure such that the Higgs bundle associated to the representation lies outside the discriminant locus of the…

In this paper we introduce complex minimal Lagrangian surfaces in the bi-complex hyperbolic space and study their relation with representations in $\mathrm{SL}(3,\mathbb{C})$. Our theory generalizes at the same time minimal Lagrangian…

Let $\rho$ be a maximal representation of a uniform lattice $\Gamma\subset{\rm SU}(n,1)$, $n\geq 2$, in a classical Lie group of Hermitian type $H$. We prove that necessarily $H={\rm SU}(p,q)$ with $p\geq qn$ and there exists a holomorphic…

Considering an integer $d>0$, we show the existence of convex-cocompactrepresentations of surface groups into SO(4,1) admitting an embedded minimal map withcurvatures in $(-1,1)$ and whose associated hyperbolic 4-manifolds are disk bundles…

In this paper we complete the topological description of the space of representations of the fundamental group of a punctured surface in SL(2,R) with prescribed behavior at the punctures and nonzero Euler number, following the strategy…

We develop the theory of maximal representations of the fundamental group of a compact connected oriented surface with boundary, into a group of Hermitian type. For any such representation we define the Toledo invariant, for which we…

Recall that the group $PSL(2,\mathbb R)$ is isomorphic to $PSp(2,\mathbb R),\ SO_0(1,2)$ and $PU(1,1).$ The goal of this paper is to examine the various ways in which Fuchsian representations of the fundamental group of a closed surface of…

We prove that given a Hitchin representation in a real split rank 2 group $\mathsf G_0$, there exists a unique equivariant minimal surface in the corresponding symmetric space. As a corollary, we obtain a parametrization of the Hitchin…

We study a particular class of representations from the fundamental groups of punctured spheres $\Sigma_{0,n}$ to the group $\text{PSL} (2,\mathbb R)$ (and their moduli spaces), that we call \emph{super-maximal}. Super-maximal…