Hitchin grafting representations II: Dynamics

The Hitchin component of the character variety of representations of a surface group $\pi_1(S)$ into $\mathrm{PSL}_d(\mathbb{R})$ for some $d \geq 3$ can be equipped with a pressure metric whose restriction to the Fuchsian locus equals the Weil--Petersson metric up to a constant factor. We show that if the genus of $S$ is at least $3$, then the Fuchsian locus contains quasi-convex subsets of infinite diameter for the Weil--Petersson metric whose diameter for the path metric of the pressure metric is finite. This is established through showing that biinfinite paths of bending deformations have controlled bounded length.