Positive configurations of flags in a building and limits of positive representations (Q2332879)

The paper is motivated by the study of Hitchin components \(\mathrm{Hit}_d(S)\) of connected, closed, oriented surfaces \(S\) with negative Euler characteristic and the flag map with respect to a Hitchin representation which takes the boundary of the universal cover of \(S\) to the space of complete flags in \(\mathbb{R}^d\). The asymptotic cone of the real numbers \(\mathbb{R}\) with base point 0 and distance given by the absolute value and with respect to a fixed non-principal ultrafilter on natural numbers and a scaling sequence is a field \(\mathbb{F}\). The set \(\mathcal{B}_d\) of homothety classes of adaptable ultrametric norms on a \(d\)-dimensional \(\mathbb{F}\)-vector space is an \(\mathbb{R}\)-Euclidean building modeled on \((d-1)\)-dimensional real affine space \(\mathbb{A}^{d-1}\) and affine Weyl group. An explicit description this of building has been introduced by \textit{A. Parreau} [Contemp. Math. 262, 263--302 (2000; Zbl 1060.20027)]. In this setting, the author combines the explicit description of \(\mathcal{B}_d\) and the positivity properties of Hitchin representations to describe the geometry of the collection of apartments in \(\mathcal{B}_d\) that arise as ultralimits of positive tuples of flags in \(\mathbb{R}^d\) and their preferred parametrizations. More specifically, if \((E,F,G)\) is a positive triple of flags in \(\mathbb{F}^d\) that is the ultralimit of a sequence of positive triples of flags in \(\mathbb{R}^d\), then there is a preferred parametrization \(f_{EG}:\mathbb{A}^{d-1}\to \mathcal{A}_{EG}\) of the apartment \(\mathcal{A}_{EG}\) in \(\mathcal{B}_d\) corresponding to the pair \((E,G)\) and two closed cones that are described explicitly in terms of the valuations of certain triple ratios. Furthermore, if \((E,F,G,H)\) is a positive quadruple of flags in \(\mathbb{F}^d\) that is the ultralimit of a sequence of positive quadruples of flags in \(\mathbb{R}^d\), then the element \(f_{EG}^{-1}\circ f'_{EG}\) of the affine Weyl group is translation by a vector in the associated vector space whose entries are determined by valuations of certain double ratios and where \(f_{EG}\) and \(f'_{EG}\) are preferred parametrizations of the apartment \(\mathcal{A}_{EG}\) with respect to the triples \((E,F,G)\) and \((E,H,G)\), respectively, as above. Both results are well known when \(d=2\) and the former generalizes a corresponding one for \(d=3\) by \textit{A. Parreau} [Innov. Incidence Geom. 17, No. 2, 109--140 (2019; Zbl 1421.51003)]. The author further relates an intersection property of three apartments in \(\mathcal{B}_d\) that occur in the positive ultralimit of a positive tuple of flags to combinatorial separation of the three apartments, which is defined in terms of corresponding tuples of flags and cyclic permutations of indices.