Convex real projective structures and Weil's local rigidity theorem (Q1653057)

A flat projective structure on an \(n\)-dimensional manifold \(M\) is a \((\mathbb Rs^n,\mathrm{PSL}(n+1, \mathbb R))\)-structure, i.e., there exists a maximal atlas on \(M\) whose transition maps are restrictions to open sets in \(\mathbb Rs^n\) of elements in \(\mathrm{PSL}(n+1,\mathbb R)\). Then there exist a natural holonomy map \(\rho:\pi_1(M)\to \mathrm{PSL}(n+1,\mathbb R)\) and a developing map \(f:\tilde{M}\to \mathbb Rs^n\) such that \(\forall x\in\tilde{M},\forall\gamma\in\pi_{1}(M), f(\gamma x) = \rho(\gamma)f(x).\) The authors consider projective structures deformed from hyperbolic structures, all holonomy representations will lift to \(\mathrm{SL}(n+1\mathbb R)\). For an \(n\)-dimensional real hyperbolic manifold \(M\), the authors calculate the Zariski tangent space of a character variety \(\chi(\pi_{1}(M), \mathrm{SL}(n+1,\mathbb R))\), \(n > 2\), at Fuchsian locus to show that the tangent space consists of cubic form. As a corollary the authors show the Weil local rigidity theorem for uniform real hyperbolic lattices for dimension \(> 2.\) Theorem. Let \(M = \Gamma\setminus \mathrm{SO}^{0}(n,1)/\mathrm{SO}(n)\) be a compact hyperbolic manifold. If \(n > 2\) then \(H^1(\Gamma, \mathfrak{s:o}(n,1)) = 0.\)