In this article we give a geometric interpretation of the Hitchin component for PSL(4,R) in the representation variety of a closed oriented surface of higher genus. We show that representations in the Hitchin component are precisely the holonomy representations of properly convex foliated projective structures on the unit tangent bundle of the surface. From this we also deduce a geometric description of the Hitchin component the symplectic group PSp(4,R).
We prove a Hitchin-Thorpe inequality for noncompact 4-manifolds with foliated geometry at infinity by extending on previous work by Dai and Wei. After introducing the objects at hand, we recall some preliminary results regarding the $G$-signature formula and the rho invariant, which are used to obtain expressions for the signature and Euler characteristic in our geometric context. We then derive our main result, and present examples.
We prove an analogue of the Hitchin-Kobayashi correspondence for compact, oriented, taut Riemannian foliated manifolds with transverse Hermitian structure. In particular, our Hitchin-Kobayashi theorem holds on any compact Sasakian manifold. We define the notion of stability for foliated Hermitian vector bundles with transverse holomorphic structure and prove that such bundles admit a basic Hermitian-Einstein connection if and only if they are polystable. Our proof is obtained by adapting the proof by Uhlenbeck and Yau to the foliated setting. We relate the transverse Hermitian-Einstein equatio…
F. Labourie [arXiv:1212.5015] characterized the Hitchin components for $\operatorname{PSL}(n, \mathbb{R})$ for any $n>1$ by using the swapping algebra, where the swapping algebra should be understood as a ring equipped with a Poisson bracket. We introduce the rank $n$ swapping algebra, which is the quotient of the swapping algebra by the $(n+1)\times(n+1)$ determinant relations. The main results are the well-definedness of the rank $n$ swapping algebra and the "cross-ratio" in its fraction algebra. As a consequence, we use the sub fraction algebra of the rank $n$ swapping algebra generated by …
We prove a sharp inequality between the Blaschke and Hilbert distance on a proper convex domain: for any two points $x$ and $y$, \[d^B(x,y) < d^H(x,y) +1.\] We obtain two interesting consequences: the first one is the volume entropy rigidity for Hilbert geometries : for any proper convex domain of $\mathbb{R}\mathbf{P}^n$, the volume of a ball of radius $R$ grows at most like $e^{(n-1)R}$. The second consequence is the following fact: for any Hitchin representation of a surface group into $\mathrm{PSL}(3,\mathbb{R})$, there exists a Fuchsian representation $j$ in $\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{R})$ s…
We show that the critical exponent of a representation in the Hitchin component of $PSL(d,\mathbb{R})$ is bounded above, the least upper bound being attained only in the Fuchsian locus. This provides a rigid inequality for the area of a minimal surface on $ρ\backslash X,$ where $X$ is the symmetric space of $PSL(d,\mathbb{R}).$ The proof relies in a construction useful to prove a regularity statement: if the Frenet equivariant curve of $ρ$ is smooth, then $ρ$ is Fuchsian.
Let $(S,g_0)$ be a hyperbolic surface, $ρ$ be a Hitchin representation for $PSL(n,\mathbb R)$, and $f$ be the unique $ρ$-equivariant harmonic map from $(\widetilde S, \widetilde g_0)$ to the corresponding symmetric space. We show its energy density satisfies $e(f)\geq 1$ and equality holds at one point only if $e(f)\equiv 1$ and $ρ$ is the base $n$-Fuchsian representation of $(S,g_0)$. In particular, we show given a Hitchin representation $ρ$ for $PSL(n,\mathbb R)$, every $ρ$-equivariant minimal immersion $f$ from a hyperbolic plane $\mathbb H^2$ into the corresponding symmetric space $X$ is d…
We study here the action of subgroups of PSL(2,R) on the space of harmonic functions on the unit disc bounded by a common constant, as well as the relationship this action has with the foliated Liouville problem: Given a foliation of a compact manifold by Riemannian leaves and a leafwise harmonic continuous function on the manifold, is the function leafwise constant? We give a number of positive results and also show a general class of examples for which the Liouville property does not hold. The connection between the Liouville property and the dynamics on the space of harmonic functions as 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 genus $g$ into $PSL(2,\mathbb R)$ and their associated Higgs bundles generalize to the higher rank groups $PSL(n,\mathbb R),\ PSp(2n,\mathbb R),\ SO_0(2,n),\ SO_0(n,n+1)$ and $PU(n,n)$. For the $SO_0(n,n+1)$-character variety, we parameterize $n(2g-2)$ new connected components as the total space of vector bundles over appropriate symmetric powers of the surf…
Let $Σ$ be a closed surface of genus least two and $ρ\colon π_1(Σ) \to G$ a Hitchin representation into $G=\text{PSL}(n,\mathbb{R})$, $\text{PSp}(2n,\mathbb{R})$, $\text{PSO}(n,n+1)$ or $\text{G}_2$. We consider the energy functional $E$ on the Teichmüller space of $Σ$ which assigns to each point in $\mathcal{T}(Σ)$ the energy of the associated $ρ$-equivariant harmonic map. The main result of this paper is that $E$ is strictly plurisubharmonic. As a corollary we obtain an upper bound of $3 \cdot \text{genus}(Σ) -3$ on the index of any critical point of the energy functional.
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 employed by Hitchin in the unpunctured case and exploiting Hitchin-Simpson correspondence between flat bundles and Higgs bundles in the parabolic case. This extends previous results by Boden-Yokogawa and Nasatyr-Steer. A relevant portion of the paper is intended to give an overview of the subject.
We introduce a new approach for computing the monodromy of the Hitchin map and use this to completely determine the monodromy for the moduli spaces of $L$-twisted $G$-Higgs bundles, for the groups $G = GL(2,\mathbb{C})$, $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$ and $PSL(2,\mathbb{C})$. We also determine the twisted Chern class of the regular locus, which obstructs the existence of a section of the moduli space of $L$-twisted Higgs bundles of rank $2$ and degree $deg(L)+1$. By counting orbits of the monodromy action with $\mathbb{Z}_2$-coefficients, we obtain in a unified manner the number of components of the chara…
Using the work of Bonahon-Dreyer and Fock-Goncharov, one can construct a real-analytic parameterization for the PSL(n,R) Hitchin component of a surface S, that is explicitly analogous to the Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates on the Teichmuller space of S. Given a Hitchin representation, we give a lower bound on the "length" of any closed curve on S in terms of the parameters describing this representation. We then show that this lower bound is good enough to produce large families of sequences in the Hitchin component along which the topological entropy converges to 0.
The Hitchin component of the character variety of representations of a surface group $π_1(S)$ 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 co…
Properly discontinuous actions of a surface group by affine automorphisms of $\mathbb R^d$ were shown to exist by Danciger-Gueritaud-Kassel. We show, however, that if the linear part of an affine surface group action is in the Hitchin component, then the action fails to be properly discontinuous. The key case is that of linear part in $\mathsf{SO}(n,n-1)$, so that the affine action is by isometries of a flat pseudo-Riemannian metric on $\mathbb R^d$ of signature $(n,n-1)$. Here, the translational part determines a deformation of the linear part into $\mathsf{PSO}(n,n)$-Hitchin representations …
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 representations without any reference to convex projective geometry or hyperbolic affine spheres. In particular, we describe analytically the Guichard-Wienhard domain of discontinuity in the flag variety and the corresponding concave foliated flag structure of Nolte-Riestenberg. In higher rank, we obtain a one-to-one correspondence between stable cyclic $\mathrm{SL}(2m+…
The first part of this paper surveys several characterizations of Teichmüller 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 invariants which generalize when PSL(2,R) is replaced by a Lie group of Hermitian type. The second part discusses underlying structures of the two families of higher Teichmüller spaces, namely the space of maximal representations for Lie groups of Hermitian type and the space of Hitchin representations or positive representations for split real simple Lie groups.
Given a convex representation $ρ:Γ\to\textrm{PGL}(d,\mathbb{R})$ of a convex co-compact group $Γ$ of $\mathbb{H}^k$ we find upper bounds for the quantity $αh_ρ,$ where $h_ρ$ is the entropy of $ρ$ and $α$ is the Hölder exponent of the equivariant map $\partialΓ\to\mathbb{P}(\mathbb{R}^d).$ We also give rigidity statements when the upper bound is attained. We then study Hitchin representations and prove that if $ρ:π_1Σ\to\textrm{PSL}(d,\mathbb{R})$ is in the Hitchin component then $αh_ρ\leq 2/(d-1)$ (where $α$ is the Hölder exponent of the map $ζ:\partial\mathbb{H}^2\to\mathscr{F}$) with equalit…
Using the thermodynamics formalism, we introduce a notion of intersection for projective Anosov representations, show analyticity results for the intersection and the entropy, and rigidity results for the intersection. We use the renormalized intersection to produce a $Out(Γ)$-invariant Riemannian metric on the smooth points of the deformation space of irreducible, projective Anosov representations of a word hyperbolic group $Γ$ into $SL(m,R)$ whose Zariski closure contains a generic element. In particular, we produce mapping class group invariant Riemannian metrics on Hitchin components which…
