Higher-Rank Teichmüller Spaces
摘要
The algebraic approach to Teichmüller spaces hints towards the more general consideration of representations of \(\pi _1(S_g)\) to Lie groups other than \(\mathrm {PSL}_2(\mathbb {R})\) . This leads naturally to the consideration of character varieties and the notion of higher-rank Teichmüller spaces, which are connected components of the character variety entirely consisting of discrete and faithful representations. Two main examples of these spaces are Hitchin components and maximal components studied in the following chapters.