Geometry, Topology and Dynamics Seminar
Anna Wienhard
U Chicago
Representations of Surface Groups
Abstract: I will introduce maximal representations, which are special homomorphisms
of the fundamental group of a surface into simple Lie groups of Hermitian
type. Maximal representations into SL(2,R) are precisely the holonomy
representations of complete hyperbolic structures on the surface.
In general maximal representations have many nice geometric properties,
e.g. they are always faithful with discrete image, which suggests that
their moduli space give some higher analogue of Teichmueller space. If
time permits I will also discuss the relations to other higher
Teichmueller spaces studied by Hitchin, Labourie, Fock and Goncharov. This
is joint work with M. Burger and A. Iozzi.
Monday October 23, 2006 at 3:00 PM in SEO 512